Two New Fruits in the Basket
by Michiko and Micharu
Summary: When twins sisters, Michiko and Micharu somehow enter the world of Fruits Basket, it's complete chaos. How will the Sohmas survive? Chapter 15 was done, then we forgot to save, so Christmas is just going to be skipped. Next chapter in the works.
1. Fluffykins and Snugglyboo

Authoress's Notes

The characters that we've created are fraternal twins. Their mother was pregnant with them while she was still teaching with their father in Japan, and got held up and ended up having the girls while still in Japan, rather then her home country. As such, the girls have duel citizenship, they moved back to Canada when their mother recovered. When they were 5 their mother died and they moved back to Japan with their father, and attended school up their 3rd year of middle school, then they moved back to Canada for high school. They still visit their friends during Golden week, spring break and summer break. They were visiting their friends during their summer break when the story begins, it is currently August, and they should be going home to finish their 3rd year of high school.

Chapter 1, Fluffykins, Snugglyboo and sweet creamy goodness

It was a day like any other, Michiko and Micharu were sitting in front of the television set watching the Fruits Basket series. It was the episode when Momiji was explaining the mothers of zodiac children to Tohru, naturally, both girls were clutching their stuffed Momiji bunnies, bawling their eyes out.

Michiko dried her tears from her honey colored eyes on one of her Momiji bunnies ears, and hugged it tighter. "Poor Momiji, I'd love him no matter what. I mean, sure it would kinda scary as a new mom to have your baby turn into a bunny, but I could never hate my own child like that."

"I know what you mean," agreed Micharu, wiping a stray tear from her emerald eyes, "Momiji is way too

adorable to hate. I feel so bad for him, too bad we have to settle for hugging plushies."

Both girls sighed, and snuggled into their bunnies again, and reached into the bowl of popcorn between them. They sat on the floor, as close to the screen as possible, without hurting their eyes, behind them on the couch sat a menagerie of plushies. Each of the girls owned a plushie of each of the main characters from the series. Yuki, Kyo, Shigure, Momiji, Hatsuharu, Kagura, Kisa, Hiro, Ritsu, Ayame, and Hatori. Most of them were in their animal form, but a couple of them also had their human forms as well. Michiko and Micharu each had their favorites. Micharu had claimed Kyo, Hatori and Shigure as her Bishonen, and Michiko had claimed Yuki, Momiji and Hatsuharu.

The episode finished a few minutes later, both girls smiling happily as they had fulfilled their daily Fruits Basket quota. Michiko yawned and stretched her arms above her head. "That was great! We should go out for ice cream."

"Strawberry all the way!" laughed Micharu.

Michiko giggled as well, "I'm going for Mint Chocolate Chip and a double scoop of peanut butter and chocolate." She drooled at the thought.

"You're such a pig!" Micharu laughed again.

Michiko blushed, "I can't help it! I love ice cream!"

Micharu hugged her, "it's ok, I love you even if you are an ice cream eating hog."

"Gee thanks."

"You're welcome!" Micharu grinned at her sister. "Well, shall we go?"

"Sure thing, should we put the plushies away, or should we take some with us?"

"Alrighty, we'll take one each, last time we went a bit overboard and the ice cream man kept giving us

weird looks."

"He just doesn't appreciate anime the way we do. I'm taking my adorably fuzzy Yuki rat, which one are you going to bring?"

"K, I'll bring Hatori then, come on snuggly boo," she said picking up her Hatori plushie from the couch and kissing its forehead.

Michiko rolled her eyes and laughed. "Come on, even I'm not that bad, isn't that right my fluffykins?" She brought her Yuki rat into a life squishing hug, making its head bulge slightly from the pressure.

"I think you might pop it if you're not careful." Micharu giggled and started dancing around singing "Pop goes the mousie!" (ya know, like Pop goes the weasel.)

"That's just mean, Yuki doesn't mind, it's not like the plushies have feelings….. Oh my god! What am I saying, of course they do, oh Yuki please forgive me!" She sat down, hugging her Yuki rat tighter. She whipped her head around, her auburn hair flailing about to add more dramatics to her outburst.

"Ok, ok, Let's go already, the ice cream won't eat itself." Micharu said twisting her copper locks into a braid.

A few minutes later both girls were on their way to the ice cream shop. They went to it every time they watched Fruits Basket, for really no reason, just to enhance their joy really, it's a wonder they aren't the size of blimps by now.

Michiko swung her purse happily back and forth as they walked, Yuki's head sticking out slightly. "Ya know, if that rat was alive, I'm sure he'd have turned green by now."

Michiko looked at her friend, "But then he'd be my favorite color!" she squealed happily, "he might look a bit odd, but he'd still be the cutest things ever!"

"In your opinion maybe."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."

At the ice cream shop

"I'll have a scoop of strawberry ice cream, with strawberries and strawberry sauce on top, please"

The ice cream server looked at Micharu oddly, "I take it you like strawberries."

"Just a bit," she agreed with a grin.

"And for you?" asked the server, directing her gaze to Michiko.

"I'll have a double scoop please, one of mint chocolate chip and another of peanut butter and chocolate."

"Alrighty then, here you girls go, be careful of the strawberry one, it's not very stable."

"That's ok," said Micharu as her mouth enclosed over it. "Aiyeeeeeeee, BRAINFREEZE!"

"You need to learn to slow down and savor it, now you have nothing for the way home." Michiko said in between licks.

"Shows how much you know me," laughed Micharu, as she ordered another cone.

"And you say I'm a pig."

"What! I can't hold myself back when it comes to strawberries, you know that!"

"I do, so then why do you always pick on me for getting what I get?"

"Does it really matter, let's just get going before this stuff drips all over my hand." Said Micharu as she ran her tongue over the trail of strawberry juice sliding down her wrist.

On the way home

"Shall we cut through the woods on the way back?" asked Micharu.

"Sure, it'll be quicker, then we'll get to watch the episode where Ayame comes in again. Doesn't he freak you out?"

"Hell ya!"

"I mean, he's cute and all, and he's Yuki's brother so I can't hate him, but he's a little over the top for me."

"Ya really think so? When did you figure that out" she laughed slapping her sister in the forehead.

Michiko sniffled, "why do you always do that! I have a very sensitive forehead ya know!" she whined rubbing her head.

"Aww, sensitive, I'm sure that's not all from me, you're not the most graceful person alive."

"That was not my fault, I swore that door wasn't there before! Neither was the wall, or the stairs, or that screen door, or the bookshelf, or the ceiling fan."

"Ceiling fan? When did that happen?"

"Huh? Oh nevermind." Michiko blushed. "It's a long story."

"Really? Well we have time, why don't you explain it."

Just as Michiko went to open her mouth, a strange feeling, like walking through a bubble passed over her. "Did you just feel that?"

"Yeah, it was kinda like walking through one of those giant bubble walls that they had at the park that one time."

"Weird, so anyway…."

"_Who's in the forest strolling? The birds and the bees sing Momiji. The frogs in the pond are calling, Momiji yes it's true._"

"Do you hear that?" asked Michiko.

"Yeah, it sounds just like Momiji too, whoever is singing must have spent a lot of time trying to copy off

the episode."

"But, who would spend time on something like that besides us?"

"I don't know, we're the one Fruits Basket freaks that I know of in town."

"Let's see if we can get them to come over here."

"But, how?" Micharu couldn't really finish what she wanted to say, since Michiko interrupted her with a

rendition of Momiji's song.

"Who's in the forest strolling, the birds and the bees sing Momiji!"

"Ow! Not so loud when you're that close."

"Shhh! Listen!" whispered Michiko, slapping a hand over Micharu's mouth.

"_The frogs in the pond are calling, Momiji yes it's true."_

"Who's in the forest strolling!"

"_The birds and the bees sing Momiji!"_

"The frogs in the pond are calling!"

"_Momiji yes it's true!"_

"Oh my god! Micharu look! It's, it's…"


	2. Fuzzy Bunnies

Chapter 2: Fuzzy Bunnies

Micharu yanked Michiko's hand away, "Michiko! It's Momiji!"

The girls' eyes got all big and shiny (they can do that now, in anime land, lol), they started giggling

hysterically, jumping up and down, and hugging each other. Momiji just stood there watching.

"Wait a minute!" Michiko stopped her jumping, "why are we hugging each other, when Momiji is standing in front of us!"

"Good point."

"MOMIJI!" they squealed, racing towards him. He looked slightly frightened. With a loud pop and a burst of smoke, the two girls sat on the ground, both hugging an impossibly adorable fuzzy yellow bunny.

"He's so kawaii! " Michiko squealed happily, hugged Momiji tighter.

Momiji poked his bunny head out from between their entangled arms, "Um, hi, not that I mind the hugging, but Momiji can't breathe."

The girls' eyes got even bigger and shinier. "AWWWWWWW!"

Micharu managed to wrestle Momiji out of Michiko's arms and placed him on the ground. Michiko scratched the back of her head, slightly embarrassed. "Sorry Momiji, I just got so excited. I mean, I've wanted to meet you ever since I first saw you."

Momiji's bunny head cocked to the side. "But I've only just met you now."

"That may be true of you, but we've been watching the entire Sohma family for a long time now, in fact, well, we don't know many personally, but we know there are lots of people that know about everything that happens with the Sohma's."

"Geez, Michiko, you make it sound like we're stalkers."

"But, how is that even possible, Akito would know."

"You'd be surprised just how many things Akito isn't aware of." Micharu answered. "Michiko, how 'bout we show him the plushies, so that he knows we're telling the truth."

"OK!" Michiko whipped out her Yuki rat from her purse. "Isn't it the cutest, not as cute as the real thing, mind you, but it's all I could get."

Micharu then pulled her stuffed Hatori out of her backpack. "See, Momiji, she has a Yuki rat, and I have a stuffed Hatori."

Before Momiji could answer, the puff of smoke that signaled his transformation engulfed them. Only his head poked out. Michiko got giddy all over again, and captured him in another hug. With another poof, she held the bunny Momiji in her arms.

"Michiko." Micharu looked at her.

Michiko hung her head guiltily. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself!"

Micharu sighed deeply "I should have known, you could barely keep your hands to yourself, even with the plushies."

"Well, as long as Momiji's a bunny, I'll just have to carry him!" Michiko's grin was so big, Micharu was surprised it hadn't cracked her face. "Let's go meet Yuki!"

Momiji poked her with one of his paws. "That might be hard, you see, Yuki and the others are on a field trip, and I don't know when they get back."

Micharu looked at her watch, her eyes hopeful. "It's getting late, they should be back sometime soon."

"Even if they aren't there, I've always wanted to see Shigure's house, lay in Yuki's bed, inhaling his sweet scent." Her eyes got all dreamy.

"How do you know he smells sweet?"

"Come on! How could something that pretty not be perfect in every way?"

Micharu sighed again, "whatever, let's go. Momiji, you'll take us to Shigure's house right?"

"Sure! I'm sure they'd love to meet you, especially since you guys already know about everything. So what do you all know anyway?"

"Everything" Micharu answered matter-of-factly. "We know about the curse, everyone's animal form, everyone's relationships, even about Kyo's true form."

Momiji's bunny eyes got big. "Really? I don't think even Tohru knows about all of that."

"We know, we've been able to see everything as it happens, even stuff that might not have happened here yet. So what has happened already? We should probably figure out where in the series we are."

"Um, well Tohru just found out about Kyo's true form about a week ago, does that help?"

"Plenty, thanks Momiji."

"No problem!" he squeaked raising his bunny paw in the air.

"So, Momiji, which way to Shigure's house?"

"That way, " Momiji answered pointing with his paw.

"Alrighty, off we go." The girls skipped happily, a fuzzy Momiji bouncing in Michiko's arms, and Momiji's clothes carried by Micharu.


	3. Honey, we're home!

Chapter 3: Honey, we're home!

Michiko was walking happily, completely absorbed by the bunny in her arms, and almost jumped out of her skin when Micharu let out a long high pitched squeal.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Michiko, there it is! Shigure's house!"

Michiko just stared. Then the shock wore off and her eyes grew big and impossibly shiny. Momiji could

feel the bubbling energy radiating off her. "So happy…. I GET TO SEE YUKI'S ROOM!"

With impossible speed, both girls were at the door. Micharu slid it carefully, remembering that Shigure liked to keep his house in one piece. They didn't have the right to ruin it….yet. They glanced around inside with sparkly eyes. Michiko set Momiji down, and Micharu placed his clothes next to him.

"Momiji, which way is Yuki and Kyo's rooms?"

"Up the stairs, Yuki's is the first one and Kyo's is at the end of the hall." Before Momiji could finish what he was saying, Michiko was gone, up the stairs leaning on the doorframe of Yuki's room, Micharu following her disappearing into Kyo's room.

Though Michiko tried to control herself, her fangirl instincts erupted and she dive bombed Yuki's bed, landing in a belly flop, and quickly wrapping the covers around herself in a cocoon. She inhaled deeply, a huge smile on her face.

In Kyo's room, Micharu was slightly calmer, spreading out on his bed and stroking his pillow. "Just think, this is the spot that my sweet Kyo rests his head at night." Without another thought she buried her face in the soft, Kyo scented fabric.

Both girls sat up abruptly as they heard voices coming from downstairs. "Shigure, remind me to never, ever let you be a parent chaperone again."

"Come now Yuki, I wasn't that bad."

"Not that bad! You tried to sneak into the girls cabins four times!" Kyo yelled.

"Yes well, I was just making sure they were safe and everything."

"That's what the female chaperone was for," stated Yuki, slightly annoyed.

"I'm sure Shigure didn't mean any harm."

"Ah, my sweet flower, thank you, at least one of you will defend me."

"Hi guys!"

"Oh Momiji!" Tohru called to him. "When did you get here?"

"A few minutes ago. I came with some girls I met, but they disappeared."

Michiko and Micharu snuggled further into their selected beds.

"Girls?" Shigure asked, "High school girls?"

"I'm not really sure, I never asked. It was kinda weird though, they said they knew all about the curse, even about your true form Kyo."

"What!" Kyo grabbed onto Momiji. "Why would you tell them that!"

"Wahhhhhh, Tohru make him stop! I didn't tell them, they already knew!"

"But, how is that possible?" Asked Yuki. "Momiji, are you sure these girls aren't Sohma's?"

"I'm sure of it, I've never seen them before."

"Hmmm," Shigure paused thinking to himself. "That is rather strange, where are they now?"

"Somewhere upstairs I guess, they asked where Yuki and Kyo's rooms were, and I haven't seen them since."

Yuki and Kyo gazed up the stairs, neither heard any movement. "Come on you stupid rat, we might as well go and try to find them."

"Agreed."

So, Yuki and Kyo made their way up the stairs and into their respective bedrooms.

Yuki noticed his blankets all piled up, and saw two glittering eyes gazing at him from a tiny opening in the blanket. He stepped closer, unsure of what it really was. His reflexes weren't quick enough and he found him self embraced by a rather excited, squealing girl. A loud pop and smoke signaled to her that he had transformed. She scooped up his rat form, and kissed it on the head. "I've waited forever to do that to the real thing. Don't you think you're a good likeness?" she said holding up her stuffed Yuki rat for him to see.

"…. What is that thing?"

"It's you silly, well a stuffed plushie version of you anyway." She squished Yuki tighter, "eeeeeeeeeee, you're even more adorable in person."

In Kyo's room

'It sounds like she discovered Yuki' thought Micharu, 'Now it's time for my Kyo and I to get acquainted.'

Kyo looked around his room, noticed a pile of blankets similar to what Yuki had found in his room. However, what he didn't know what that Micharu was no longer under the blankets, but hiding behind his door. Once Kyo was inside the room, she shut the door, and leaned her back against it, Kyo whipped around to look at her. "What's new pussy cat?"

"….Um". Before he really had a chance to react, Micharu swept him up into a bone-crushing hug. A pop and smoke, then she was revealed holding a disgruntled orange kitty in her arms.

"You're so soft and snuggly, I'll never ever let you go!" Kyo's kitty eyes went wide with fear at this proclamation.

A second later, she heard Shigure's voice in the kitchen. "Did you boys find them?"

With Kyo stowed safely under one arms, Micharu raced down the stairs with incredible speed, sliding into one of the sliding doors in her rush. Her eyes found their target. Shigure. In a split second he was in her arms, then a pop sounded and she clutched a black dog, and a still disgruntled orange kitty. "You guys are the best!" She sighed in her state of bliss, snuggling her face into Shigure and Kyo's fur.

Michiko skipped down the stairs, the biggest grin on her face. Just as she reached the entrance to the kitchen, she tripped over her own feet, sending her sprawling into the group. "Hehehe, oh Hey Micharu, I see you found them." Micharu grinned.

"I see you found Yuki as well."

"Yup!" she held up the tiny white rat with pride. "He's even cuter up close."

Michiko looked behind her, "oh, hey Tohru, what's up?"

"Um… not much, it's very nice to meet both of you."

Micharu looked back at Tohru as well," nice to meet you too"

"Same here" quipped Michiko.

"Um, not to pry or anything, but how do you know about all of this?"

"You wouldn't believe us if we told you." Both girls spoke in unison.

"I see, well then, how about some tea?" Tohru asked politely.

Michiko looked at Micharu, "I think tea would be great, we should give them some time to take it all in, it's not everyone who can handle us in a big dose like this."

"I agree, tea would be wonderful, it'll be just like the series. Can you believe it! Us, having tea at Shigure's house!"

several minutes later

Everyone sat calmly, and fully clothed, at the table, while Tohru passed around cups of tea.

"Well now," said Shigure, "Now that we're all back to normal, maybe you could explain some things to us."

"Yeah! Like why the hell you're sneaking into our rooms and hugging us!"

"Kyo, be nice" scolded Tohru.

Kyo blushed slightly and hung his head. "Fine."

"Awe, That's so Kawaii!" Michiko whispered to Micharu. "So Tohru, have either of these guys asked you out yet?"

A huge blush formed on Tohru's face, "W-what, why would they do that?"

"Wow," whispered Micharu, "I mean, I knew that she was a little dense, but this is ridiculous."

"I know, you'd think she'd have figured out something by now." Michiko looked up at her, completely serious, "Tohru, we know from hours and hours of observation and careful research that both the cat and rat have feelings for you, but for some reason, neither of them has done anything about it yet."

Yuki and Kyo blushed deeply, both avoiding looking at Tohru. "You must have made a mistake, we're all just friends."

Michiko shook her head, and glanced at Micharu sending her a look that seemed to say: 'I don't believe

that for a second.'

"Anyway," interrupted Shigure, "back to the topic at hand, how do you know about us?"

"Well," stated Micharu, "You see, we've watched you guys on TV, and in mangas. You're all part of a series called Fruits Basket. I know that probably doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's true, that's how we know about everything. Basically you guys are an anime made for the enjoyment of our world. Not that we love you any less of course. I'll bet you didn't even know that Kyo has a fan club. Not just one of girls at his school either, but there are hundreds of girls all over the world who love Kyo, and Yuki too."

"I think all of them have a fan club somewhere." Michiko offered.

"True, true, anyway, back to what I was saying. Everyone who has seen this anime, or read the mange knows about the Zodiac curse. We know that Akito is the head of the family, and the curse that he bears. We know about each of your animal forms, we know about your relationships that you seem content to ignore in public, but secretly think about all the time. Basically we know everything."

Michiko squirmed over to Kyo, "Did you know that we've all seen your true form, but we all still love you? I'm not allowed to love you publicly, cuz Micharu has claimed you as her Bishonen, but I do anyway." She crawled over to Yuki as well. "And Yuki, we know what happened with you and Akito when you were little, and I've wanted to hug you for so long, ever since I found out, nobody in our world really likes Akito very much because of that, and of course what he did to Hatori, and pretty much everyone else." Michiko then swept Momiji up into her arms, "And Momiji, we were just watching the episode today when you told Tohru about your mom, we were hugging our stuffed Momiji bunnies and crying, cuz we felt so bad for what happened to you. We know about everything bad and everything good and everything in between." They all stared at her completely shocked. Michiko stood and walked over to Shigure. "Just one question, ok Shigure?"

"Um, sure."

"What the heck is up with you and Ayame?"

Shigure scratched the back of his head nervously. "Oh that, well you see…"


	4. Dragons, Tigers and Sheep, oh my!

Chapter 4: Dragons and Tigers and Sheep, Oh My!

They all sat at the table together, quietly at first, then a rather loud tummy growl emanated from Michiko, who blushed brightly. "Heh, sorry, I guess that ice cream we ate before coming didn't really fill me up."

Tohru smiled, "That's alright, I should go and start dinner anyway." Tohru disappeared into the kitchen.

Micharu squirmed over to Kyo and prodded his forehead with her finger. "What the hell was that for!" Kyo yelled at her.

"You should go help her cook, it'll get you ahead."

Kyo's cheeks flushed dark red, "W-what are you talking about, why would I want that." Micharu proceeded to slap his head.

"Stop being stupid, and get your furry orange kitty ass in that kitchen and help her cook!"

"Fine, fine, whatever, just stop yelling."

"Great!" Micharu squeaked happily.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door, followed by a voice. "Shigure! I'm here for Yuki's check up, can you open the door please."

Micharu stopped where she stood, frozen in shock. Her eyes growing, and happy sparkles invading her vision, her grin began to expand. All of a sudden a loud squeal of joy erupted from her, and she raced to the door, opening it with a crash and latching herself onto the person on the other side. "HATORI!" A resounding pop filled the air, and she glanced down at her hands through the characteristic smoke. There sat a very confused looking tiny sea horse. She cooed and giggled, hugging the tiny creature to her face.

She held her hands out in front of her, gently taking the tip of his curled tail in her fingers and pulling it straight, then letting it go, and repeating the action. "Curly, straight, curly straight, curly…" You get the idea. Shigure approached her from behind, a sweat drop floating above him.

"Um.., Micharu, I think we should put Ha'ri into some water, we don't want him suffocating after all."

"Ack! You're right, I'm so sorry Hatori, I didn't mean to almost kill you, let's get you in some water right now." Yuki came out with a bowl of water, to which Micharu carefully deposited Hatori's sea horse form. She turned to Shigure with shiny eyes. "He's going to be ok right?" She latched onto Shigure's arm, "I'm sorry, so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt him, please tell me he'll be ok!"

Shigure sighed, "You remind me of Ritsu. Don't worry, I'm sure he'll be fine, he might not appreciate that whole tail thing though." Shigure laughed lightly at her, causing her to pout and cross her arms, blushing. "He's been through worse, and he's always come out fine, so don't worry about it."

"ok." She was slightly more subdued though, or at least she would be until Hatori changed back.

Michiko stood up and walked over to her friend. "I think we should have a talk." She dragged her friend outside. "Micharu, I'm sure you're aware that Hatori is slightly more subdued than Kyo and Shigure, what exactly is he going to think of you launching yourself at him before he even knows your name? Although I must admit, that tail thing was adorable. "

"Yeah, well you did the same thing to Yuki."

"Well…. Fine, but even so, you're going after Hatori, aren't you? I'm setting my sights on Haru, not Yuki. You and I both know that Yuki and Kyo are way to wrapped up in Tohru to even see either of us. So my glomping Yuki, doesn't really affect anything since I'm not pursuing him."

Micharu sniffled miserably. "Ok, I'm sorry, my emotions just got the better of me. I was just so excited to finally see him, but I promise I'll try to restrain myself when I am in his god-like presence."

Michiko slapped Micharu lightly on the back. "That's my girl!"

The two girls entered the building once more, huge smiles on their faces. Shigure looked at them oddly. "Got everything worked out? We put Hatori in the bathroom, so he can dry off, I might try introducing yourself before you attach to him again."

"Don't worry, I will." Micharu grinned, slowly edging her way to the stairs that led to the upstairs bathroom. "Right now! Oh Hatori!" She ran down the hall, stopping briefly in front of the door. "Hmm, to knock, or not to knock. Hmm, a way to solve both problems! A nice trip!" she stepped back a few paces, and not so gracefully made herself trip over her own feet. A crash was heard, that reverberated through the house.

Michiko sighed, and glanced toward the stairs. "Ah, the old trip and break the door, so it's not my fault routine. Wish I'd thought of that."

Upstairs, Micharu was ever so beautifully sprawled out of the bathroom floor, the remains of a door beneath her, and a very surprised looking Hatori standing there, his hair dripping wet. His dark pants slightly damp, and a towel around his neck. A blush spread across Micharu's cheeks, and she looked down at the floor. "Oh, um, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to barge in. really. I just wanted to apologize for transforming you." She sat up her head still slightly lowered. "My name is Micharu, my friend and I, Michiko, somehow came here, we've known about all of you for so long, and I just got so excited that I finally got to meet you, I guess I just wasn't thinking." She heard a sigh above her head.

"That's quite alright, it's not your fault that Shigure has faulty doors. Anyway, why don't I finish getting dressed, then I can fix up those cuts."

"Cuts?" She looked down, and noticed several angry red marks across her skin from where the door had been less then gentle. She glanced up at Hatori who was buttoning up his white dress shirt. Once finished, he reached out a hand to her and helped her stand.

"Thanks" For all her energy for seeing him before, it was a wonder that she could be this calm in his presence. The two of them walked downstairs. Micharu glanced at Michiko who had a large grin on her face when she noticed her blushing friend.

Tohru came back in from the kitchen. "Hatori, how are you? We put your bag in the kitchen."

"Thank you Tohru, it seems I have more then one patient today. Yuki, I'll be with you in a moment, I have to tend to Micharu right now."

Micharu blushed darker, as Hatori sat her down on a chair, and swabbed down the cuts. She flinched as he applied the disinfectant. Hatori placed his hand on her knee to steady her. "It only hurts for a few seconds, but unfortunately you've accumulated a nice collection when you fell through the door."

Kyo looked at her strangely. "How did you manage that?"

Instead of Micharu answering she just blushed deeper red, so Michiko answered for her. "You'd be surprised what she can manage. She fell into the splits in the middle of the street once, and it wasn't even icy."

Shigure raised an eyebrow. "interesting."

Michiko glared at him. "Get that image out of your head right now!"

"What image? Who says I was imagining this lovely young lady being nice and limber for all the world to see?"

Micharu glared and looked up. "Michiko, slap him please, I'm a little preoccupied."

"Can I hug him instead?"

"OK."

Michiko spread her arms wide and captured a slightly frightened Shigure in her embrace. A pop and burst of smoke later, and she held a black dog in her arms. "Who's a good doggy?" she squealed, scratching behind his ears. Shigure whimpered and his leg began to twitch before thumping on the floor in glee. "I always knew dogs were comical." She laughed at the pup in front of her barely containing his enjoyment.

Hatori applied the cleaner to the last of Micharu's cuts, causing her to jerk away, as this cut was deeper then the others. Hatori's grip tightened. "just relax, it will only be worse if you move around like that. " Micharu forced her leg to remain still, as he finished swabbing it. His grip lessened, and he reached into his bag for bandages. The gauze was applied swiftly, but carefully to her larger cuts, while simple band-aids were applied to the minor ones. He stood, giving her a small smile, "There now, that wasn't so bad."

"Thank you, Hatori." He didn't really respond, as he was already working on Yuki, checking his breathing for abnormalities.

"You're doing fine Yuki, I should be going now, I'll be back in a few weeks to check on you again. I can't stay long now, Akito is sick, but I'll be back to hear the story of these two later."

No sooner had Hatori left, was there another knock at the door. This time Tohru answered the door. "Sissy!"

"Kisa, How are you?"

"I'm fine," Kisa looked behind Tohru, "who are they?"

"Oh, that's Micharu, and that's Michiko. They're staying with us for a little while."

"Oh, hello," Kisa waved to them, and the girls waved back. Kisa came in further, pulling a reluctant Hiro along behind her.

Michiko poked Micharu in the back of the head and leaned close to whisper to her. "I say we group hug this one. We can't see Kisa's form since we're both girls, but we can get Hiro to turn into a sheep."

"Yay!"

Micharu and Michiko stood quietly and stealthily crept over and behind Hiro, and instantly grabbed him into a group hug. With a pop and burst of smoke, they held a rather irritated looking sheep between them.

"Wow, he's so soft!" squealed Michiko as she stroked his fleece.

"Steeeeeeeeroke" Micharu did a whole body stroke, Hiro's eyes growing big, as she flicked his tail.

"And he has such tiny little feet too." Michiko poked his hooves. "You're so adorable!"

Tohru sweat dropped and sighed. "I don't think Hiro likes that too much."

"We know!" both girls chorused. "He's just to cute to leave alone though!" However, despite this proclamation, they set Hiro down, and ushered him into another room, and left him with his clothes.

Michiko turned to Tohru, "Is dinner ready yet, Tohru?"

"Oh, yes of course, can you two help me set the table?"

"Sure," answered Micharu. Without hesitation Michiko and Micharu, ushered everyone into another room so that they could set the table with Tohru. With all the dishes and utensils set up for everyone, Michiko, Micharu, Tohru and Kyo began to bring out the dishes of food. Tohru, with Kyo's help had prepared a delicious meal of rice, salmon, miso soup, bean sprouts, stewed leeks (for Kisa) and to top it all off, a steaming pot of sweet green tea.

Everything was arranged beautifully, when Tohru sent Michiko and Micharu to gather everyone up for dinner. The table was a little more cramped then usual, but they managed to squeeze everyone in. Shigure was at the head of the table, with Yuki on one side and Kyo on the other. Tohru sat at the other end of the table, beside her was Kisa, who also sat at the head of the table, and next to Kisa was Hiro. Between Hiro and Yuki sat Momiji, and on the other side of the table sat Micharu, next to Kyo and beside her was Michiko.

Micharu prodded Michiko in the ribs, "it's a good thing we've had so much practice with chopsticks, or this would be really embarrassing."

"Yeah, I can't imagine having to learn all over again."

The girls nodded in agreement, and began the meal. Micharu tapped her cup with her chopstick. "Is this green tea?"

"Yes, it's really quite good, Kyo's great at making tea," answered Tohru.

Micharu looked disheartened. "But I hate green tea."

Michiko whapped her on the head with her chopsticks, "Just drink it, you don't want to offend Kyo, or he might never agree to make tea again."

Micharu sighed, and sipped her tea reluctantly. "Hey! This tea is way better then yours is Michiko."

"Gee thanks."

"You're welcome!" Micharu chirped happily, and continued sipping her tea.


	5. Ice Cube Exposure

Chapter 5: Ice cube exposure

Everyone that wasn't staying at the house had left, and all those that remained were getting ready for bed. Micharu and Michiko stood together in the living room, not entirely sure where they were supposed to sleep. Shigure had allowed them to stay at his house, since they really had no where else to go, and it was mostly safe since they already knew about everything. Shigure walked through the room, wearing his sleeping robe.

"Um, Shigure?" inquired Michiko, "We were just wondering where exactly we're going to be sleeping."

"Oh, I guess I hadn't really thought about it. Hmmm, I suppose you two can stay with Tohru for tonight, until we can have something else arranged. I don't think that either Yuki or Kyo would be too keen on sharing a room so you two can have the other. Yes, I'll go check with Tohru right now, and if that doesn't work out, we'll bring you two some futons."

"Alright, thanks Shigure" offered Micharu.

Shigure went upstairs to talk with Tohru. "Micharu, we're going to have to get some money or something, we need to get something to wear besides what we have on. It doesn't seem like we're going to get home any time soon."

"Yeah, maybe we can borrow a little from Shigure, we'll have to get jobs. Maybe we can talk to Momiji about getting a job at the same place the Tohru works. Or we could always go to Ayame's shop, sometime after we meet him of course. I'm sure he wouldn't have any objections to dressing us up."

"Great idea! I hope we meet him soon."

Shigure came back downstairs. "Tohru said it would be fine for you to share her room with her. How long exactly are you two planning on staying here?"

"Good question," said Michiko, "we don't really know, since we're not even sure how we got here in the first place. We were actually just talking about it. Since we're going to be in this place for an indefinite amount of time, we were wondering if we could stay here."

"I suppose so, you'll have to meet Akito and let him decide of course, but I don't really mind."

"Alright, and as for money and stuff, we were thinking of talking to Momiji and getting a job where Tohru works. Then we could get ourselves some clothing. We don't have too much money on us, but we're going to need more then one outfit. We were also wondering if you would introduce us to Ayame as well. We know that he likes making clothing, and we'd like to get something from him." Shigure grinned. "Not THAT kind of something! Just something else to where. We also wanted to know if we could borrow some money from you, so that we could go out and buy some of the things that we'll need. We'll pay you back as soon as possible, and we'll even pay rent if we have to."

"Well it seems like you've got this all thought out. I'll take you girls to see Akito tomorrow afternoon, and I'll call Aya in a little while too."

The girls glomped him. "Thanks so much!" He didn't transform this time, they were both just hugging his arms.

"Ah it's almost a shame that you didn't turn me into a dog, my dear Michiko, you have magic fingers."

She giggled, and Micharu rolled her eyes.

Upstairs, Michiko and Micharu changed into some sleeping robes and crawled into bed beside Tohru. Michiko giggled and spread out. "I love this bed! It's so huge!" in her excitement she accidently prodded Micharu in the side, who promptly leaned over and whacked her on the head. Michiko rubbed her forehead, "that was mean, I didn't mean to kick you."

"Still, you're being a bed hog, and we have to get some sleep, we have to meet Akito tomorrow."

Michiko shuddered, "I really hope he's calmed down since talking with Tohru, I don't think we can handle him otherwise."

"I wouldn't worry about it," comforted Tohru, "he's not as bad as you think, you just have to be very careful with what you say around him."

"No kidding," whispered Micharu, "you also have to be careful to stay out of his reach."

"Well, let's just hope that he's in a good mood when we go see him."

They all feel asleep easily, and woke hours later to the knocking of Shigure on the door. "Girls, it's time to get up, we'll be leaving in a few hours to the main house. Hatori will be picking us up so make sure you're ready." He left when he heard the rustling of bed sheets, and knew they were getting up.

It turns out that Michiko is just as bad as Yuki when it comes to waking up in the morning, while Micharu

was just the opposite, able to bounce off the walls just like Tohru on happy drugs. (scary thought)

Yuki and Michiko sat side by side at the breakfast table, both with eyes barely open, neither of them had dressed yet, but were still wearing pajamas. Tohru and Kyo were dressed, and Kyo was helping Tohru make breakfast. Micharu wasn't dressed, since she had limited clothing, but she was wide awake, and setting the table around the two sleepy people. Michiko groaned and fell to the side, resting her head on Yuki's shoulder. "Mmmm, more sleep please."

Micharu grinned evilly, and crawled up behind Michiko, holding two ice cubes. Ever so slowly she moved closer, and quick as a flash there was an ice cube down both Yuki's and Michiko's shirts. A wailing scream broke the silence, well two screams actually. Yuki having pried off his pajama shirt to get rid of the icy intrusion, and Michiko who was jumping around frantically. Her ice cube wasn't nearly as easy to dislodge, since she was basically wearing a dress. She reached behind her and undid the waist strap, and flung open the outside layer. The ice cube was relentless, and just as Shigure walked into the room, Michiko was desperately pulling off the final layer of her sleeping kimono. She stopped suddenly to find Shigure staring at her, along with a grinning Micharu, and a very stunned Yuki, Kyo and Tohru.

"Dammit Micharu! It's stuck in my bra strap!"

Shigure, grinned and raised his hand, "I'll get it out for you!"

"Argh! I don't care who gets it out, but someone has to! I'm gonna get frost bite!" Shigure was behind her in an instant, undoing the clasp of her bra with two fingers, releasing the ice cube. She quickly brought her arms across her chest to stop the bra from falling to the floor. "Um, right then, thanks Shigure, I'll just go now, and ya know, get dressed." She walked away with one arm holding her bra in place, the other holding up the under layer of the kimono around her waist, and holding the trailing over layer. She disappeared upstairs for a few minutes.

Micharu eyed Shigure warily, "you are way too good at that." She whacked him over the head. "She's only 16 ya know, so don't even think of being able to do that in any other circumstances."

"What other circumstances might those be?"

Micharu blushed slightly. "Stop being stupid, you know what I mean!"

Micharu was relieved when Michiko came back downstairs, fully dressed to boot. She was still wearing the same thing as yesterday, not that she had much choice, and her hair was pulled into a messy bun, she looked much more awake then she had previously. She marched over to Micharu. "What the hell was that for!"

Micharu only giggled. "You're awake now aren't you, plus," she leaned close and whispered, "you got to see Yuki pull his shirt off."

"I was a little too preoccupied to notice that! I can't believe I missed it!"

Micharu grinned. "We could always repeat this tomorrow morning."

Michiko sighed, and went to sit at the table. Everyone had recovered from their shock, and Tohru was serving breakfast. They had left over rice and miso soup, and she had made some fresh fish stew and leek porridge. Everyone ate heartily, although Kyo skipped his helping of leek porridge for obvious reasons, as did Micharu, who, although she had never had leeks before, simply refused to eat it. When they had finished, Tohru cleared the table, and Shigure turned to talk to the girls about the day ahead.

"We still have some time before we meet Akito, I think that we should get you both something new to wear, since it's not a good idea to look shabby around Akito. For now, we'll borrow some of Kagura's kimono's when we get to the main house, I highly doubt that she'll mind, especially if we bring Kyo."

"NO WAY IN HELL AM I GOING WITH YOU, NOT IF KAGURA IS GOING TO BE THERE!"

Michiko glared, and turned to Kyo. "Shut up, Kagura loves you very much, and if you didn't fight her all the time you wouldn't get hurt. All she wants is for you to acknowledge her. I'm sure if you did then you wouldn't have so much of a problem."

"Yeah, well…" Kyo trailed off, blushing.

"Any way," interrupted Shigure, "I'll let you two get ready as best you can, and we'll head to the main house as soon as Hatori gets here with the car. There won't be room for all of us, so Yuki and Tohru can stay home."

The boys stayed seated at the table, while Tohru cleaned the dishes, and Michiko and Micharu went upstairs to get ready.

Upstairs

Michiko sat behind Micharu, brushing her friends long copper hair. She carefully divided it, and secured it with a dark blue ribbon. In return, Micharu styled Michiko's hair into a braid that she twisted into a bun and tied with a light green ribbon.

"I don't suppose all this preparation will matter to much if Akito gets really mad at us, you remember what he did to Tohru when she went to see him."

"We'll just have to hope that Hatori and Shigure will stop him before he does anything drastic. Oh god! I don't want to lose an eye! " she sniffled, "poor Hatori."

Michiko sighed, "relax will you, we're not coming to him with prospects of marriage, we just want to stay at Shigure's. "

"Well, not marriage right away." She grinned. "Just kidding, although I wouldn't object to being Hatori's wife."

"I'm just not going to say a thing."

"You're no fun." Micharu stuck her tongue out. Michiko flicked her in the nose.

"Don't stick it out unless you're gonna use it." Micharu blushed, and Michiko laughed at her. "Come on, let's go downstairs, I think I heard a car." Micharu nodded, and followed Michiko down stairs.

Shigure was standing at the door waiting for them, talking with Hatori. "Ah, there you are, ready to go?"

Both girls nodded, and Shigure called to Kyo. "Kyo! We're ready to go!" Kyo appeared in the entrance way, grumbling about Kagura. All five of them shuffled into the car. Hatori in the driver's seat, Shigure in the passenger seat, and Micharu and Michiko in the back with Kyo lodged in between them. They set off, the girls nearly vibrating with excitement at the chance to see the main house, but as they drew closer, they calmed, realizing they were that much closer to facing Akito.

Once there, Shigure led them to where Kagura lived, Hatori and Kyo following in the rear. Shigure knocked on the door, and Kagura peeked through the door. "Oh, Shigure, nice to see you, did Kyo come with you?"

"Um, yes, actually, but that's not why we're here, we need your help first."

Kagura wasn't really listening. Her eyes got all glossy and sparkly, and she flung open the door, and pranced out. "Kyo! My love!" Upon spotting the red head, she began to run, her eyes narrowed, and she pounced on him. "KYO! I MISSED YOU SO MUCH! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE HERE!" Kyo was currently being squished beyond all recognition. Kagura held him in such a way that he couldn't have fought back if he wanted to. Kyo didn't say anything, but just continued to be squished.

Micharu leaned over, and whispered in Kyo's ear. "I bet if you just hugged her back once in a while, she

wouldn't freak out like this."

Carefully, Kyo pried his arms out of her grasp, and carefully placed them around her. Kagura swelled with glee, and she hugged him back, though, not enough to actually harm him this time. She seemed to calm down considerably, simply embraced him happily.

Micharu grinned at him, "see I told you."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

Shigure interrupted Kagura and Kyo. "Um, Kagura, we did come here to get some help, not just for you to see Kyo, you can spend time with him after, alright?"

"Ok!" she agreed quickly, and released Kyo, but still stood close to him. "What was it that you needed?"

Shigure motioned to Michiko and Micharu, "Well, you see, these two girls know about the curse, and they need to speak with Akito, but they don't have anything to wear besides what they have on, so we thought that since they're both your size, that you could lend them some kimonos."

"Sure, just bring them in, and I'll see what I have."

Michiko stepped forward, bowing slightly to Kagura. "Thanks so much Kagura, I'm Michiko, and my sister here is Micharu."

"Nice to meet you, please come with me." Micharu and Michiko followed Kagura in, and she showed them a closet full of beautiful kimonos. "Pick any one you like."

The girls smiled and began to sift through the closet. Micharu selected a kimono with a dark blue under coat, and a pale blue outer layer with bubbles decorating the outside. Michiko picked out a dark green under coat, with a light green outer layer that had trees at the bottom rim with leaves floating around the top. Both were equally beautiful and suited the girls well. Once they were finished, Kagura led them back out, and they all followed Shigure to where they would meet Akito. Kagura and Kyo left for a while, but Hatori stayed with them.

Shigure turned to the girls. " We'll have to wait outside, but Akito knows that you're coming, so we'll wait

until you're done, but if anything goes wrong, we'll be sure to come in and help."

Both girls bowed to him, "thanks Shigure." They turned to the door and knocked, then waited.

A moment later, a chillingly calm, but oddly sinister voice beckoned them. "Come in."


	6. The Judgement of Akito

Chapter 6: The judgement of Akito.

Michiko gulped, and grabbed onto Micharu's hand, as her sister opened the sliding door. Together they entered the scarcely lit room. A dark figure sat at the opposite end, hidden in shadow. They walked in halfway, and bowed to him before sitting on the floor, and bowing again.

"So, Shigure tells me that you know of the curse, is that so?"

Michiko bowed her head. "Yes Akito."

Micharu bowed her head as well, adding to the answer. "We've known for some time, but we never imagined that we'd ever actually meet the Sohmas."

"How exactly did you find out?"

The girls looked at each other, trying to decide what to tell him. Michiko whispered to her sister about the mangas, then turned to Akito. "There are books, that we've read that speak of the Sohmas, and the curse. We came upon them a few years ago, and from those books we know all that we do. But never before now, have we ever had any contact with any one of the Sohmas."

"I see. My family is very influential, we would know if there were anything like that, it would have been promptly destroyed before any outsider would have seen it."

"Akito," Micharu began, "The book that we read, is not from here, we used to live across the ocean, and found it there. In Canada, actually, but there isn't any of your family there, and you, yourself hold no power there."

Akito's small eery smile dropped, and his teeth bared as he brought his hand down, slapping Micharu's face. She whimpered, but didn't scream, tears formed in her eyes from the force of the blow, but Michiko could make no move to help her sister. "I hold power wherever I choose to, no one outreaches my grasp."

Michiko looked up at him, "Akito, please, we did not come here to insult you, we simply thought that, since we already know of the curse, it would be alright for us to stay with Shigure, since we have no other place to go."

Akito then turned his rage to her, grasping her hair and flinging her to the side. "What made you think that! You have no right to ask anything of me! Perhaps, I shall keep you here, I can watch over you and make sure there is no trouble."

Micharu glanced at him, through blurry eyes. "Akito, please stop."

Akito glared at her, and grasped her ponytail, lifting her up. Then he seemed to grow tired, dropping her back to the ground, covering his mouth with his hand and started coughing. "Hatori."

Michiko sat up and ran to the door, flinging it open. "Hatori, something is wrong with Akito." Hatori and Shigure rushed in, picking up Akito from the ground where he had collapsed. Hatori fished out an inhaler, and administered the medication to Akito, who instantly relaxed.

Akito looked at the girls, "stay with him, if anyone finds out about my family, you will pay."

Michiko and Micharu shrunk away. Hatori helped Akito stand and walk to his room. Shigure kneeled down in front of them. "I'm sorry, Akito gets a little rough some times."

Micharu half glared at him, "really? We never would have guessed." She massaged her cheek, to dull the pain. Michiko undid her braids, since her hair was ruined anyway.

She sighed, "at least we get to stay, and he didn't do anything worse."

Micharu agreed, and they walked outside with Shigure. "Hatori will be out soon, and he'll drive us back to the main house. We'll have to discuss what we're going to do with you two, since the school year is over half over."

Shigure left to go collect Kyo, and he returned with him, followed by a teary eyed Kagura who promised she'd come visit Kyo soon.

Hatori reemerged, and they all went back to Shigure's house, the girls shaken up by their first encounter with Akito.

Micharu leaned over and whispered to her sister, "it's probably a good thing we didn't tell them that they're a television series."

AN: Sorry this was so short, we just wanted to fit this in, but we didn't want to stuff it into the chapter before, so it gets its own little chapter.


	7. The Shopping Bags

Chapter 7: The Shopping Bags

Back at Shigure's, everyone sat around the table, except Hatori, who had returned to the main house to care for Akito. Momiji had stopped by for a visit though, so he sat in between Michiko and Micharu. "Well, now that you're allowed to stay, we need to figure out what we're going to do with you. So far, Tohru's room has been fine, but I highly doubt that it would be comfortable for a permanent arrangement. We'll need to find some place for you to sleep. Then there's also the question of school, which is almost over, but we should probably still enroll you to finish up the year."

"Um, Shigure," quipped Micharu, "we're actually already finished our second year of high school. You see, where we lived, school finished in June, and starts again in September, so we've already finished what they're learning, just in a different language."

"Oh, alright, where did you say you were from?"

"Canada," answered Michiko. "We used to live in Kyoto though, we just went there for high school, but I guess we're back now."

"Ah, well then, I guess you won't have to start until the spring then, so you'll have a few months off, what are you planning to do until then?"

"We were thinking of getting jobs, so that we could pay for school, and anything else that we need while we're here, then we'll go to school. I suppose we'll have to brush up on everything we've learned before we go back, but we can just study with everyone else when they do homework, so it shouldn't be a problem." Answered Michiko.

Micharu turned to Momiji, "Momiji, we were wondering if we could get jobs where your dad works, maybe the same thing as Tohru, but we'd be working full time, instead of part time. Do you think you could help us find something?"

"Oh, sure! Papa would be able to find you any kind of job, I'll go call him right now." With that, Momiji

stood up and scampered over to the phone.

Micharu next turned to Shigure, "We were also wondering, since we don't really have anything to wear, if we could borrow some money to get some new clothes, until we can pay you back."

"Of course, I also remember you saying something about Aya's shop, do you still want to go there?"

"Of Course!" they both chanted.

"Alright, we'll wait until you're settled though, maybe in a few weeks, I'm sure he'd love a visit." With that decided, Shigure went into his office and came out with a few thousand yen, and gave some to each girl, who squealed in appreciation. "Remember, this is money for clothes as well as everything else you might need for a while, so don't go crazy, I don't get paid for a while either."

The girls jumped up and embraced him, "Thank you Shigure, we love you!" In a moment, they sat on the floor, scratching a black dog's ears, while his leg thumped on the ground, his tail wagging happily. They hugged him again before jumping up, and almost falling over when Momiji appeared in front of them.

"Great news! Papa says that you both can come down tomorrow, and you'll be trained for your jobs!"

"thanks Momiji!" they squealed.

Michiko glanced at the bunny, "Momiji, we're going shopping, would you like to come?"

"Yay! Really, I get to come?"

Michiko giggled, "of course you can come, Tohru, you should come too"

"Yeah it would be so much fun if you came." Micharu added.

"Well I don't know if I should. I have to start supper soon and I wouldn't want the boys to go hungry."

Michiko grinned "Well we could just bring the guys with us. I'm sure Shigure would just love to see us model some clothing and help us pick some things out."

Looking over at Shigure, they could see him blush as he fantasized about them in all types of outfits, none of the types of which they would be getting close to. Michiko and Micharu broke out into laughter.

Michiko grabbed onto Tohru's wrist, "Come on Tohru, I'm sure they won't starve, they're big boys , and besides I'm sure Kyo can cook something up for them." Micharu joined in, grabbing Tohru's other hand, Momiji following cheerfully behind them.

Once out of sight from the house, both girls released Tohru, and walked normally, Momiji next to Michiko. "Come on Tohru, we figure you could use a new outfit or two, we'll help you find something cute," Michiko smiled.

"I agree, we should get her dressed in something that will help the boys make up their minds, you need to show off the goods!" Micharu giggled at this.

Tohru blushed, "I don't know,"

Michiko, looked down at Momiji, "Don't you think that Tohru would look cute in something that didn't come up to her neck? We think she needs something that will show off just how pretty she is."

Momiji smiled, "yeah, Tohru, you can never have too many cute outfits."

Tohru finally consented, and led them through the town to where the mall was. There were several stores that sold very conservative clothes, which Tohru tried to walk into, but she was steered clear, and into the stores that sold some not so conservative clothes. Before Micharu and Michiko even looked for themselves, they dispersed and came back with an armful of clothing each, and handed them to Tohru, and pushing her towards the change room. Once she had disappeared behind the door, Michiko and Micharu spread out again, and returned with clothes for themselves. Momiji waited outside the change rooms for them.

Michiko emerged wearing a dark green skirt, the same length as Tohru's school uniform skirt, and a tan colored t-shirt. A pair of tan knee high boots completed the look. Micharu was wearing a red tank top with cream colored pants and red flip flops. They had to drag Tohru out though, she was wearing a low cut, pale blue tank top, golden skirt, and black pumps.

"Tohru, you look so cute!" Momiji cooed.

"What do you think of ours?" asked Michiko.

"Very nice! You both look so pretty."

Michiko grinned at Micharu, "I knew it was a good idea to bring him along." She turned to Tohru, "You really do look amazing, I think you should get this outfit, or at least the shirt."

"I don't know, I'm not really comfortable with this outfit."

Micharu rested her hand on Tohru's arm, "well, at least try on some of the other outfits."

"Alright." Tohru tried on several more outfits, including a dazzling red skirt with a white tank, and white pumps, a pale green dress with the same white pumps. She also got to try on some knee high boots of both

black and cream leather, with various skirts, and tanktops.

Finally, they found something that Tohru was willing to get. She got some pale gold pumps with a gorgeous red tank top that had gold sparkles along the neckline, and a soft cream skirt with gold along the hem. The red made her beautiful blue eyes really pop, and the gold gave her a nice shimmer, plus the shoes gave her a few extra inches of height.

The other girls bought the outfits they had already tried on, plus an assortment of others. They stopped by several other stores, where they bought undergarments, pajamas, and some things to jazz up their sleeping area, once they got one of course. They talked Tohru into a new pair of pajamas as well, a pale blue night dress, that showed her off, and they had also, each picked up a nice low top for Tohru.

Once they had enough clothes to last for a couple weeks, they went for dinner, and hung out talking. They enjoyed a fabulous meal of fried rice, miso soup and some Chinese spring rolls. They talked about everything, it turns out that Tohru, Michiko and Micharu all had something in common, none of them had a mother any more. They knew that Tohru's had died in a car crash, but they didn't tell too many people about their own mother.

Micharu and Michiko had lost their mom when they were 5, so they really didn't know her too well, and they had been living with their dad ever since. They had seen less and less of him over the last year though, and they weren't entirely sure why, they had been staying with some friends in Japan for the summer. Even though their friends were in school, they didn't mind having the girls impose. However, they hadn't gone home this time, and they had no idea how their dad would take the news that his daughters had disappeared.

After dinner, Micharu mentioned that they would need more then clothes if they were going to stay here, so they gathered up their many bags and went to the drug store to pick up various essentials. Both Michiko and Micharu were completely loaded down in dozens of bags containing objects from clothes to brushes, to books and shoes. Momiji even had to help carry some, and Tohru helped also as they made the now grueling trek home. It was late, the sun had already set, but the lights were all still on at Shigure's house.

Shigure answered the door before they got there, and grabbed some bags from each person and helped them carry everything in. "I see you got everything you need."

Michiko grinned, "yeah, we should have everything, thanks so much for the money, we even got Tohru to buy something today too, I'm sure you'll love it when you see it."

Shigure placed a finger on his chin, contemplating what exactly they got Tohru too buy. "Could I have a hint, I'd like to know what you've convinced our beautiful flower to buy."

Michiko winked at him, "let's just say it helps your 'flower' look more like a blossom then a seedling."

"Ah, just the kind of outfit I've been dying to see on her."

Micharu sweatdropped, "it's not quite 'that' kind of outfit, Shigure."

"Well, either way, I'm sure it will be very refreshing to see her in something so feminine and pretty." Yuki and Kyo rolled their eyes in the background. "Well, anyway, now that you're back, we should get you all settled, it's very late."

All of a sudden, Momiji let out a yawn. Michiko cooed, and smiled at him, "we really should be getting to sleep, it's too late to send Momiji home by himself, could he stay here with us tonight Shigure?"

"I don't seen why not, we are a bit cramped for space, but I suppose one night won't be a problem. Tohru, I'm sure Yuki and Kyo don't want Momiji to bunk with them, do you mind another guest for the night?"

"Oh, no! Not at all, of course Momiji can stay with us, I'll go set up another futon right now." Tohru set down the bags she was carrying and scurried up to her room, as she grabbed a futon out of the closet.

Michiko flashed Shigure a mischievous grin, she set down her own bags and fished through one of the ones that Tohru had set down. She pulled out the red tank that Tohru had purchased and held it up for Shigure to see, "Nice, hey? We thought it was time she got something to wear that would make those two," she motioned to Yuki and Kyo, "actually get the with program and ask her out some time soon. Do you like it?"

"Yes, it's very nice, hardly any fabric at all."

"You should see it on her, I've never seen her look so hot, it goes great with the rest of the outfit too."

"So when do you plan to force our little flower into that outfit?"

"Well we haven't figured that out yet, but she owns it, so she'll have to wear it at some point."

Tohru came sprinting down the stairs, "everything is set up, we should move the bags upstairs."

Tohru, Micharu, Michiko and Momiji gathered up the bags and all shuffled into Tohru's room. Tohru's huge pink bed was in the corner, and there were three futons laid out on her floor. All the bags were dumped in the corner, and Michiko and Micharu fished through the many packages for their new pajamas.

Momiji borrowed a pair of Yuki's pajamas, and the girls were thoroughly enjoying their new clothes. Michiko was wearing a white camisole with lace along the neck line, and red satin pajama pants. Micharu was wearing a peach color pajama tank top and deep blue lounge pants. Tohru was still dressed in her repressed pink pajamas that came up to her neck.

Micharu stretched her arms above her head, and sat down on her futon. "Tohru, I think the next time you should wear your new pajamas. They look so cute on you."

"Oh, no I couldn't, I'm really just not as comfortable in those types of clothing, not like you two, I'm just not as pretty."

Momiji hopped onto Tohru's bed, "Tohru, of course you're pretty, who ever told you that you weren't?"

"Well, no one, but I just haven't heard anyone say it for a long time."

Michiko looked over at her sister. "Tohru confuses me, it seems like she needs external validation for almost anything, yet when she receives it she disagrees with it. Does that make sense?"

"Not really, most people who need external validation love receiving it, and they'll do whatever it takes to get more validation. Tohru just confuses me."

Michiko smiled, "Oh well, I'm sure we'll figure her out eventually." She let out a yawn, "maybe we should get some sleep though, we might be more functional in the morning."

"We? Since when are you functional in the morning?"

Michiko sighed, "You know what I mean, you can figure it out in the morning, and I'll help you think in the afternoon when my brain is working at full capacity."

Micharu turned to Tohru and Momiji, "Sleep time, Momiji, come to bed and let Tohru get her rest."

"Aww, do I have to?"

Michiko stood up from her futon, and walked over to Tohru's bed. She scooped Momiji into a hug, and with a poof, carried a fluffy yellow bunny in her arms, and into bed next to her. Micharu turned off the light and settled onto her futon. She smiled at Michiko who looked perfectly content hugging Momiji and drifting into sleep.


	8. Water Wars and Sick Beds

Chapter 8: Water fights, sick beds and dragon kisses

Morning dawned too early for Michiko's liking, especially since Momiji was awake and bouncing around the room. Tohru was up already, and downstairs making breakfast, Micharu was sitting next to her sister, prodding her forehead.

Michiko swung her hand wildly, "ok, I'm up already, stop with the poking!" Micharu grinned, but did not stop poking Michiko, in fact she persisted even faster. Michiko squealed and flailed around in an attempt to get away from Micharu. Momiji was quite amused by this display and sat on the bed laughing at the sisters.

Micharu stopped poking Michiko after being whacked in the stomach by a stray foot. "Come on, we should go help Tohru with breakfast." She looked around the room, there was very little floor space considering there were four people occupying the space. "Maybe we should make our new room sooner, I'm sure we can get Yuki and Kyo to help us. Maybe Shigure will take us to the lumber yard and we can build a tree house or something."

"I guess, um, why is Momiji still here? Shouldn't he be getting ready for school or something?"

"You'd think so, but school doesn't start for over an hour, so he can stop by Sohma house on the way."

"That makes sense, alright then, let's get some food, I'm starving."

Momiji, Micharu and Michiko all made their way down from Tohru's room and downstairs. The sweet smell of jasmine rice wafted through the house, and the sizzle of frying salmon was very welcoming in the morning. Yuki, Kyo and Shigure were sitting at the table already. Michiko and Micharu received some interesting looks from Shigure as he took in their 'conservative' pajamas.

Both girls went into the kitchen and reemerged carrying a variety of utensils and plates, and set them out on the table. Shigure stood as there was a knock at the door, and he walked over to answer it. "Ha'ri, what are you doing here this morning?"

"Momiji didn't come back to the main house last night, so I figured that he was here. I've brought his school uniform so he doesn't have to come all the way back to the main house before school starts."

"Ha'ri!" Momiji came bounding to the door, and smiled brightly at the Sohma doctor. "Thanks for bringing my uniform, why don't you stay for breakfast?"

"Yes Hatori," quipped Tohru emerging from the kitchen, "I made more then enough for everyone, you're welcome to stay."

"Thank you Tohru, I think I might."

Micharu, who was sitting at the table, was having trouble breathing as she listened to Hatori's voice. She wrung her hands under the table as he came and took a seat next to her.

"Good morning Micharu." He stated politely.

"Um, good morning Hatori." She managed to squeak out as a fierce blush spread over her cheeks, she dropped her head to avoid looking at him directly. She was quite certain that the embarrassment was flowing off her in waves, and was surprised that nobody had said anything about it yet.

Tohru returned to the kitchen to finish preparing the food, Michiko came out carrying a variety of dishes and began setting out the meal, she also set up a spot for Hatori. She laid out dishes of jasmine rice, and plates of salmon, along with cups of tea and some orange slices. It was very simple, yet very delicious. Tohru sat down across the table from Yuki, next to Kyo. Michiko took a spot next to Tohru, and Momiji sat next to her, while Shigure took his seat at the head of the table.

When breakfast was finished, Momiji went to change into his uniform and the others went to finish getting ready for school. When they had all left for school, there was only Michiko, Micharu, Shigure and Hatori left at the house. Micharu and Michiko were washing dishes and Shigure and Hatori were talking in the other room.

Michiko poked her sister in the side, "how do you expect to develop a relationship with him, if you can't even look at him?"

"It doesn't matter, I don't think he even knows I exist."

Michiko grinned, "it's hard not to remember you, considering you glomped him the first time you saw him."

"Shut up!" squealed Micharu as she flung water at Michiko.

Michiko stood there very calmly, soap suds in her hair and water spots covering her shirt. "You do realize, dear sister, that this means war." With lightning fast movement, she grabbed an empty rice bowl and scooped it full of water and tossed it at Micharu, who was promptly soaked. She let out a distgruntled meow as she tossed more water at Michiko.

Shigure heard the sounds of splashing water and dropping dishes, and decided to investigate. The sight that met him was rather amusing, for him anyway. Two high school girls completely soaked standing over the sink throwing handfuls of water at each other, in light colored shirts no less.

"Ladies, calm down, look at what you're doing to my kitchen."

They stopped flinging water to glance around the kitchen. The floor was as wet as they were, and there was a variety of dishes scattered everywhere. They also glanced down and noticed that their shirts were almost completely see through. They squeaked and each grabbed a tea towel to cover themselves. Shigure just stood by the door, smiling innocently as Hatori came in. Micharu blushed because he was seeing her like this, so she tried to high tail it out of the kitchen, but the floor had become quite slippery and all she managed to do was fall on her face, bringing Hatori down with her. Shigure stood there howling with laughter, Michiko was giggling as well as they watched the sopping wet Micharu hovering over the tiny sea horse Hatori.

Micharu stood up, and handed Hatori over to Shigure who promptly put him in some water. She managed to leave the room without falling and ran up to Tohru's bedroom, Michiko followed soon after.

"Smooth one sister."

"Shut up!" squealed Micharu collapsing to the ground, "He's going to hate me now! All I ever do is trip over things around him, I can't do anything right!"

Michiko knelt down next to her sister and placed an arm around her shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm sure Hatori doesn't hate you. I actually think it's kinda sweet that you get like this around him, usually you can at least stay on your own two feet, this just proves that you like him. I can go check with Shigure to make sure that Hatori is ok if you want." Micharu glanced up at Michiko with huge shiny eyes, nodding her acquiescence. Michiko smiled, "I'll tell him you're sorry for tripping on him too."

Micharu just blushed and hid her head again.

Michiko left her sister sitting on the floor wallowing in her embarrassment as she pranced down the stairs to check on Hatori. She found Shigure talking to a slightly damp Hatori. "Hatori? Micharu would like to apologizing for falling on you, she a little embarrassed right now so I offered to come apologize instead. She kept saying that you must hate her now cuz she keeps transforming you, but I told her she was being ridiculous."

"I see, well you may tell her that I don't hate her, it certainly is an inconvenience to be transformed that much, but it's not her fault, so there's nothing for her to be embarrassed about. Just tell her to be a little bit more careful in the future."

"Alright, thanks Hatori, I'll go back and check on her." She waved goodbye to Hatori and went back to Tohru's room. Micharu was still sulking on the floor where she had been when Michiko last saw her. "Would you stop that, he said he doesn't hate you. He just said you have to be more careful next time, so I guess that means you can't 'accidentally' fall through the bathroom door when he's having a shower now." Michiko grinned as she watched her sister blush a deep red.

"He was done showering when I did that, he was almost fully dressed too!"

"Of course honey."

later that day

Micharu sneezed, twice. "Micharu, are you alright?" asked Michiko, as her sister sneezed yet again.

Micharu snuffled a bit before answering. "Yeah, I'm fine, I just can't stop sneezing…ACHOO!"

"Hmmm," Michiko placed her palm on Micharu's forehead. "You have a bit of a fever, maybe you should

go lie down for a bit."

"Yeah, sure," so she proceeded up to her room that she was sharing with Tohru.

"Shigure?" asked Michiko, "Do you think we could, maybe, call Hatori, even if he won't cure her, at least seeing him would make her feel better."

"I suppose, I'll go call him and ask." Shigure stood from the table, and went into the other room to call Hatori. "Hey Hatori, one of those girls that's staying with us has gotten a fever, and her sister was wondering if you could come over and take a look at her" Shigure waited for Hatori to answer. "Alright, we'll see you in a few hours then. Thanks." Shigure hung up the phone, and returned to the table. "Michiko, Hatori said that he can stop by in a few hours."

"That's great! I'll go let her know." Michiko rose from the table, and walked up the stairs to find Micharu. "Hey Mich, Shigure called Hatori to come check on you. He'll be by in a few hours. Are you feeling any better?"

"Not really, I keep sneezing." Michiko smiled at her twin from the door.

"Don't worry, even if Hatori can't make you healthy again, I'm sure a visit from him will perk you up."

"I guess, even though I've already had my quota of humiliation today. I'm just gonna take a nap until then, alright?"

"Sure thing, I'll go help Tohru with dinner, and I'll bring you up a plate a bit later. Have a good sleep."

Micharu gave a tired smile, and snuggled deeper into the blankets of the bed.

Several hours later there was knock at the door. Shigure answered the door and invited Hatori inside for the second time that day. "Ha'ri, long time no see, the girls are upstairs in Tohru's room."

"Alright, I'll so see what I can do. Which one of them is sick?"

"Micharu, I believe. I think maybe that little water fight of theirs this morning didn't agree with her."

"So it would seem." Hatori made his way up the stairs and into Tohru's room. He knocked on the door and was answered by Michiko.

"Hatori, thanks for coming, again."

"It's no trouble, what seems to be the matter with her?"

"She keeps sneezing, and she has a bit of a fever, and a cough as well."

"Alright, is she asleep?"

"Yes, I'll go wake her up." Michiko allowed Hatori in and nudged Micharu to wake her up. "Micharu, Hatori is here, you need to get up."

Micharu yawned and sat up, covering her mouth as a cough overtook her. Michiko quickly handed her a glass of water, which was gulped down.

"Leave please, I need to examine her." Michiko nodded and left to go back downstairs.

Micharu had stopped coughing, so Hatori set his bag on the bedside table and sat down on the bed. He placed his fingers under her jaw to check her swollen lymph nodes, then proceeded to test for any painful sinus pressure. He ran his fingers down her throat to check for any abnormalities or pain.

Her blush combined with her fever made her cheeks a flaming red, she sighed as his cool fingers rested on her heated skin.

"I'm going to have to give you an injection to help bring down your fever, it's too high for me to allow it to stop by itself. I'll also leave some cough medicine for you with Shigure."

Her eyes widened with fear, and she clutched the blanket. "A needle!"

"Yes," he said simply, pulling the syringe out of his bag.

"But-but you can't!" she cried, drawing her arms to her chest. "No more needles, I can't!" She dropped her head when tears welled up in her eyes, memories flashing through her mind. Memories of sharp jabs, teeth breaking her skin, and hospital monitors. 'I can't cry in front of him,' she thought desperately, 'he'll think I'm just a little kid.'

Hatori began to prep the needle, and managed to pull on of her arms down so he could sterilize the injection spot. The tears that she had been trying to conceal spilled over and a sob escaped her. "Please, Hatori, I can't do it."

He set down the needle and placed a hand under her chin, forcing her to look up at him. "You can, I promise that it won't hurt, but you have to calm down."

She shook her head, her hair flying around her. "That's a lie, that's what they told me last time, I've never hurt so bad in my life." She looked up at him, shock, fear and admiration clear in her eyes, as he tucked her loose hair behind her ears and wiped away a stray tear that trailed down her cheek.

He placed her hand in his, "You need to relax, now squeeze my hand if you feel any pain." Her fingers were shaking, but she did as she was told. It wasn't the easiest task in the world, to give a needle with one hand, but Hatori managed to successfully administer the medication. It didn't even bother him when her nails dug into his hand when the needle pierced her skin. He set the needle aside, placing a wad of cotton on the puncture, and gave her a small smile. "You're done now. If you don't mind my asking, why are you so afraid of needles?"

She sniffled and her body shook with sobs. Before he knew it, she had launched herself forward and was hugging him around the neck. "When I was little, I was bitten by a dog."

"A dog, well that's fairly common among young children, they often don't know not to approach strange animals."

"But I had always played with this one, it came by the park all the time, but then it bit me. I didn't know why, but it was meaner that day then it usually was. I got really sick after that, and I was in the hospital for days. I had to get so many shots, and they hurt so much. Daddy told me that the dog had to be put down because it had rabies, and that was what was making me sick."

"Rabies? I'm not surprised, that is one of the most painful shots you can get, you're lucky to be alive after that."

Micharu nodded her head, resting her forehead against his shoulder. "That's what they told me, but ever since then I've been so afraid of needles, it doesn't matter what anyone says, all I can remember is that pain. It didn't hurt that much this time, but I was so scared, I don't think anyone else could have done this, you're the only one that's gotten close to me with a needle since then." Her voice became a mere whisper by the end, Hatori had the medication mixed with a mild sedative to help her sleep. Her grip became slack and he laid her back against the bed, pulling the covers up over her.

He gazed at her with compassion in his eyes, as he leaned forward and place a kiss on her forehead. She was barely awake, her body totally relaxed. Hatori left for a moment then returned with a damp, cool cloth. He placed it on her forehead and turned to leave again.

"Hatori," she whispered.

"Hmm?"

"Thank you, for everything."

"It was my pleasure," he said pulling the blankets more securely around her. "Now get some sleep, I'll call your sister to watch you. Good night Micharu."

A smile spread over her lips as she drifted off to sleep.


	9. Home is Where the Heart Is

Chapter 9: Home is where the heart is

Micharu awoke to something soft and fuzzy tickling her face, she opened her eyes to see Michiko holding up the Hatori plushie. Micharu sat up quickly, then felt dizzy so she fell back against the pillow again.

Michiko smiled at her sister, and placed the plushie next to her, which was quickly hugged. "Michiko? He kissed me, well at least I think he did, I was sort of feverish at the time, but I'm pretty sure it happened."

Michiko grinned, "Oh it happened all right! And I've got photographic proof."

"Pictures, but how? I thought he sent you outside."

"Well, he did, but I decided to climb into the tree outside the window, just too make sure you controlled yourself in your feverish state." She giggled, "I mean, we don't want our little Hatori defiled or anything do we?" Micharu slapped weakly at her sister, and blushed horribly. "Wow, you should be sick more often, I get less injuries when you're mad at me." Michiko poked at her sisters forehead, laughing as she tried to slap her hands away. "Hehehe, you're like a little kitten."

Micharu groaned, "aren't you supposed to be taking care of me, not aggravating my illness?"

"Technically yes, but this is more fun." Micharu glared, "I'm kidding, I just came to see if you were awake, so that I could bring you some breakfast. We made you leek soup," she giggled as a look of disgust passed over Micharu's face, "Hatori said you should eat all of it so you feel better, honestly, you're as bad as Kyo."

"yeah, well Kyo has the right idea about leek soup, no one in their right mind would eat that stuff."

"I suppose, but you're not exactly in your right mind now are you?" Without another word, Michiko pranced out of the room, returning with a tray of leek soup and green tea. "Ta da! Your favorite meal ever!" She set the tray on the bedside table. "I've got a surprise for you when you're done eating."

"What?"

Michiko whacked her sister lightly on the forehead, "well it wouldn't be a surprise if I told you." With that she left her sister to eat her breakfast, she joined everyone else downstairs to eat.

About an hour later, Michiko returned to check on her sister. She had finished the soup, though rather reluctantly, and was now sipping on her overly sweetened green tea. "Finished?"

"Yup."

"Great, I'll send up your surprise." Michiko gathered up the empty dishes, and refilled her sisters tea, before leaving again.

A minute or two later there was a knock at the bedroom door. "Come in." Hatori slid open the door, and stepped inside, closing it behind him.

"Good morning Micharu, are you feeling better?"

"Yes, thanks to you."

"Good, your sister tells me that you like strawberries…"

"A lot."

"yes, a lot, so she's sent me up with some," he said, presenting her with a small bowl of fresh, ripe, red strawberries. Micharu accepted them, her blush matching the same hue as her favorite fruit.

"Thank you."

"You're still a bit flushed, is your fever still affecting you?"

"Um, no, it's not the fever Hatori." She lowered her eyes to the strawberries, blushing even more.

"Are you sure? I can give you another check up."

"No, really, that's not necessary, I'm just a little… over heated at the moment, I'll be fine in a minute."

"Alright then, I just stopped by to check on you, so I should be going now. Also, your sister mentioned something about you two building a room out back, so I'll most likely be stopping by to help with the construction."

Micharu shifted in bed, placing the empty strawberry bowl on the side table, in this movement, her Hatori plushie fell off the bed and onto the floor. The actual Hatori looked down at it, "what's that?"

"Oh nothing!" she said quickly, snatching up the doll and stuffing it under the covers.

Hatori raised an eyebrow, looking at her accusingly. "I'm sure." Hatori left to go downstairs, and Micharu sighed, pulling out the plushie giving it a hug.

Hatori stopped to talk to Shigure before he left. "She seems much better, though still flushed, and also, she has some sort of doll that look strangely like me." Shigure looked at him oddly, and then turned to Michiko when he heard her burst out laughing. "You know about this?" asked Hatori.

"Well, yes, I have one too, though not of you. I have one of Yuki in his rat form, we got them from home, and had them with us when we came here."

"What is it though?"

"A plushie, a doll form of our favorite Bishonen. Although Yuki's not so much my favorite at the moment, but he's still cute. Anyway, we go to a convention every year, and they have these things there, we have ones of most of the Sohma's, but they're at home."

"I see, well, anyway, I should be going, call me if you need anything." And so Hatori left.

"Well, now that Hatori is gone, we should go pick up everything we need to build you two a room. We can start everything while Yuki, Kyo and Tohru are at school, then when they get home we can get the boys to help. I'm sure some of the other Sohma's could be convinced to help as well."

"All right," stated Micharu.

The three of them got ready and started the walk into town, they would have the supplies delivered, and then they could start construction.

On the way Shigure turned to them, "So, when does this job of yours start?"

"We talked to Momiji's dad, and we were told that we could start in about a week, so I guess we'll be getting a phone call the day before or something. I hope that we'll actually have our rooms finished by then, they probably won't be very furnished or anything, but we'll at least have a roof."

While Michiko was explaining this, Micharu stood on tip toes and whispered into Shigure's ear, "We should invite Hatsuharu." Shigure nodded to her, and they separated quickly when Michiko turned around to look at them oddly, raising a questioning eyebrow.

Micharu just waved her hand nonchalantly and stepped up her pace to walk next to Michiko, "Just working on a surprise for you."

"Alrighty then, as long as it doesn't involve ice cubes."

Micharu grinned at her sister, and they walked along, enjoying the breeze. "Don't worry, it doesn't involve

ice cubes, but it should still give you a nice shock."

After several more minutes they ended up at hardware store, they spoke with one of the employees about measurements, and lumber. There were some tools that they also needed to purchase, once they had everything they needed Shigure filled out a delivery form, and they left the store with a few bags of tools and buckets of wood stain. Shigure carried the tools and each girl carried a bucket of stain.

"So, what time will everything be delivered?"

"Hmm, they said everything should be there in about an hour or so, maybe two, but if its any longer then that we get a discount delivery fee."

"Alright, so what exactly are we going to do until everything arrives?"

"Well, we need to clear a space in the back yard, there's an old tree that we can move, it's dead anyway, and then we need to rake everything, and level out the ground."

"Fun stuff."

Once they were home, the girls changed into some shorts and t-shirts and tied their hair back, and got to work.. Shigure had knocked down the tree he had mentioned earlier, and was in the process of hauling chunks of it away. The girls each grabbed pieces and in about 20 minutes the tree was gone, and they had much more space to work with. Next the girls brought out two rakes, and began that chore, which took a lot longer.

The building supplies had been delivered while they were about halfway done raking, and were currently sitting in the front of the house in a pile. While the girls finished raking, Shigure was inside making phone calls to various Sohmas. The sun was very warm as they toiled outside, and soon it was lunchtime. The girls were sweating from the heat, but Shigure hadn't come back out after the phone calls, he, instead decided to work on one of his novels for a while. Everyone stopped working for a while, the girls made a quick lunch and they all sat down to eat.

"Everyone who agreed to help should be here in the later afternoon, most of them are coming after school, and Hatori said he would stop by to help as well, as long as no one at the main house gets sick."

"So, about how many people are we expecting, cuz we should probably go out and get some dinner ingredients for everyone."

"Hmm, I'd say, including us there will be about 9 of us. After we've leveled off the ground, you two can go out and buy some food."

"Ok," Michiko went to the kitchen and set her dishes in the sink, and went back outside to work.

Micharu turned to Shigure, "So, did Hatsuharu agree to come?"

"Well I haven't actually heard back, but I told Yuki and Kyo to make sure that he comes back with them."

"So, who all is coming then?"

"Us, Hatori, Yuki, Kyo, Tohru, Momiji and Haru."

"Great, thanks for all your help Shigure."

"No problem," he said, winking at her. Micharu picked up her dishes as well as Shigure's and put them in the kitchen before joining her sister outside.

Michiko was busy hacking away at some stubborn lumps of ground. Micharu ducked as a clod of dirt came flying at her. "Hey! Careful, you're likely to take someone's eye out swinging the shovel like that."

Michiko blushed, "sorry, I just got sort of carried away. There's another shovel over there." She said pointing to the shed.

Micharu went and picked it up, and together they managed to flatten a large section of land. Their new room wouldn't be huge, but it would be large enough to comfortably accommodate two teenage girls. They would both be sleeping on futons to save on space, and they would be putting in a series of shelves for most of their belongings, and an armoir for their clothing. This all still had to be purchased of course, but first they had to get the room built.

With the ground flattened, the tree removed and the ground raked clean, there wasn't much left to do, except wait for everyone to get there. It was about 2 in the afternoon, and nobody would be arriving to help for another couple hours.

"Finally done!" Michiko stretched her arms in the air with glee.

"Not quite, we still have the whole thing to build."

"Yeah, but we're done the part that we had to do alone, we'll have help for the rest of it, so it won't be that hard. How long do you think it will take?"

"Hmm, I guess today we'll probably be able to get the frame up, unless they argue about how to build it, but it should be finished by the end of the week at least. The building will be done anyway, we still have to get electricity in here, I guess we don't need running water, since we can just go inside, but there's a lot of things we need, since this is like a tiny house for us."

"I suppose, but most of what we need will be in the house, I mean, we're only staying out here to sleep, so it shouldn't be that big of a deal."

"You're right, well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Why don't we go get cleaned up before everyone gets here, I feel so gross from being in the sun all morning."

Michiko toyed with a piece of hair, frowning at the dust and leaves stuck all over her. "Yeah, I might just have to have two baths today, my hair is disgusting."

"Alright, you can go have a bath then, I'll just hang out with Shigure til you're done."

"K, see ya in a bit."

Michiko filled the large tub with steaming water before stripping down and stepping in. She sighed as the morning of sweat and grime melted away. She washed her hair quickly and then got out, dried herself off, and got dressed. Once she was done, she went to find her sister, who took a bath herself.

Shigure was sitting at the table reading, while the girls bathed. Micharu came out dressed and ready to go, and then they borrowed some money from Shigure and walked to the grocery store.

"So what should we make them for dinner?" asked Michiko.

"Hmmm, how about some mizutaki (chicken and veggie stew)?" offered Micharu.

"That sounds good, what vegetables should we buy?"

"Um, how about some satsuma imo (sweet potatoes), takenoko (bamboo shoots), tamanegi (onion), ninjin (carrots) and some peas. I think that should be good." Said Micharu.

"Yeah, what about some shiitake mushrooms?" asked Michiko

"K, those should go good, and other then that we just need the chicken, we can make the sauce back at

home."

The girls spread out and gathered up the many vegetables, and the chicken they needed. The meal was rather inexpensive, so they could afford to buy extra to feed the other people.

They returned home to find that Hatori had already arrived and was speaking to Shigure. "Hey Hatori!" called Michiko, "You're here early."

"Yes, I'm going over the blueprint with Shigure. We won't be able to get much done if we done have a plan."

"Oh, I suppose that would make sense, thanks for the help."

"It's not trouble, I didn't have much else to do today."

"You're so smart Hatori!" gushed Micharu.

"Yes, thank you Micharu."

"You're welcome!" she beamed at him.

The girls put the groceries in the kitchen and began to prepare the meal. They brought out a slow cooker, since they had a few hours before everyone would be ready to eat. Micharu washed the vegetables, and Michiko peeled, or chopped them depending on the veggie. Then they half cooked the chicken to make sure it would be cooked on time and tossed it into the cooker, along with the vegetables. Michiko whipped up a quick creamy gravy and mixed the contents of the cooker with the sauce. With that finished, they went back out to see Hatori and Shigure.

Shigure was staring intently at the plan that Hatori had drawn up. So far they had a rather square design for a room that would be 15x15 feet, large enough to house two teenage girls and all their belongings. Hatori had also drawn up some designs for several shelving units, and an area of the room that could function as a closet.

Michiko surveyed the plans with approval. "This looks great Hatori. What are we going to do about lighting?"

"I've already made arrangements. A few of the Sohma extended family are electricians, and they agreed to set up all the wiring for you. They'll be stopping by in two days. That should give us enough time to complete the frame and most of the walls."

"Alright, so what should we do until everyone gets here?"

Hatori looked at the clock on the wall, "Everyone should be arriving fairly soon, it's almost 4 right now, so it shouldn't be too much longer. We can just sit and wait, since we can't do much until they arrive."

They sat around the table, chatting amicably for about half an hour, then people started arriving. Actually they arrived in one big clump, since they were all coming from the same place. Tohru came in first, followed by Yuki and Kyo. Momiji followed seconds later, and then came Hatsuharu. Micharu stood to greet them, but Michiko stayed sitting, frozen in that position.

This was the first time that they had met Hatsuharu, Michiko had fantasized about this moment before, and of course she knew that she would be meeting him eventually, but she still wasn't prepared. Everyone was talking around her, but she stood perfectly still, her gaze focused on Haru.

"Haru?" she whispered, and he turned to look at her. She took two steps forward until she was directly in front of him. She placed one hand on his chest, so that even if she leaned forward, he would not transform. Leaning close, she placed her other hand on his shoulder, and leaned forward to capture his lips. Everyone stared at her in shock, except Haru of course, who was a little preoccupied.

He tasted sweet, just like she had imagined, but had a lingering flavor of darkness, she guessed that was from Black Haru. Her breathing almost stopped when his hands came around to rest on her hips. She finally pulled away, her eyes opening slowly, she found herself captured in his gaze, the raw, unguarded emotion staring into her. A blush stained her cheek, and she backed up quickly, bowing, his hands dropped to his sides. "Gomen nasai. I just… I… I'm sorry." She kept her gaze lowered, completely embarrassed with herself that she had done what she had. Everyone was still looking at her, and the heat in her cheeks rose. She just stood there, until she felt a hand on her chin, which brought her face to look up. Haru was watching her.

"Don't worry about it, I mean, it's not something a guy would usually complain about, so there's nothing to apologize for." He grinned, "So now that we've been physically acquainted, how bout I get to know the rest of you, your name for starters."

Her blush darkened, so she was now flaming red. "Gomen, my name is Michiko Mackenzie. Everyone stopped staring, and began talking amongst themselves. She was still standing in front of Haru, though rather awkwardly now.

She heard him sigh, and she looked up at him. "I guess you already know who I am, so why don't you tell me something about yourself, or is kissing the only interaction you'll have with me?" he grinned as her blush deepened.

"I already apologized, you don't have to make fun of me." Her overwhelming embarrassment was gradually being replaced with annoyance.

"Well, then tell me something."

"Alright, well you already know my name"

"And your lips"

"Yes, those too, Micharu is my sister, we're technically from Japan, we were born here, but our dad moved us to Canada for until we were about 6, then we moved back to Japan for school. I'm not entirely sure why, but when we finished middle school, dad moved us back to Canada for high school when his contract for teaching English was finished, we finished our second year there, and then somehow we managed to get back here. So, since we are here, and we have no idea how to get back we're taking our third year in Japan."

"Alright everyone, we're going to have to get started, we have two days to get things built before the electrician comes. So, everything is waiting outside, I'm sure you all know how to hammer nails, so this shouldn't be a problem. Hatori and I will help you along the way." With that said, everyone trailed out to the back.

(The building process isn't all that exciting, and we don't know too much about it, so we're just going to skip it. We'll just say there were a few hammer injuries, mostly too Kyo, more blushing as Haru poked fun at Michiko, and another transformation as Micharu tripped over a board and landed on Hatori.)

After several hours the sun was beginning to set along the horizon and everyone was alerted of the time by the grumbling of Yuki's stomach. Tohru started to freak that she had yet to begin dinner but was consoled by the two other girls.

"Don't worry Tohru," comforted Micharu, "we started dinner hours ago. It should be finished by now. I think we've got enough done out here, so why won't we all come inside to eat."

"Great!"shouted Momiji, "I'm starving."

"Alright, let's eat!" Michiko raised her arm in the air and motioned for everyone to follow her inside. Everyone crowded around the table, and Michiko, Micharu and Tohru served each person a steaming hot bowl of delicious mizutaki.

"This is delicious!" mumbled Shigure as he stuffed another spoonful into his mouth. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement as they continued to eat.

Michiko stood up and surveyed several empty bowls. "Anyone for seconds?"

Shigure, Kyo, Hatsuharu and Micharu raised their hands, and Michiko went into the kitchen after collecting their bowls. She refilled them, and brought them back out. Michiko looked to Hatori and Shigure, "So I guess we're done for tonight, right? Is everyone coming back tomorrow then?"

Hatori nodded. "We got a lot done tonight, the foundation is secure and we have the basic frame completed. Tomorrow we'll finish the walls, I thin I'll get the electricians to come a day early, then we can finish once they leave."


	10. Home Sweet Home

Chapter 10: Home sweet home

Several days had passed, the electricians had come, and set everything up, and everyone else had finished the building. Momiji had fallen off the roof at one point and was caught by Micharu. Michiko and Haru had gotten to know each other a little better over the last few days, and she was actually able to have intelligent conversation with him now.

The building was looking very nice, but they still needed to apply some stain to give it a polished look. They chose a cherry wood stain, and soon the wood was transformed into gleaming, dark planks. With the building painted, it was time to move everything in. Hatori had left with Momiji, but Hatsuharu had stuck around and was going to be spending the night. The boys carried out the futons and set them up, while the girls carried out their clothing.

The beds were in the far corner, next to each other, and the closet, one the other side of the room was slowly being filled with clothing. The shelving unit took up one wall, and that too was slowly being filled, as the girls brought in their bags of belongings. Tohru, Yuki, Kyo and Hatsuharu went inside, leaving Michiko and Micharu to arrange everything to their liking.

They had bought several things to spruce up the room. On the free wall space they hung up some wall scrolls, one of a gorgeous cherry tree in full bloom, another of a dolphin leaping from the ocean, and the last one was of Mount Fuji. It added a nice decorative flare to the room.

Each girl took half of the shelves. Micharu set up a variety of girly things, mostly cosmetics and cleansers, same as Michiko. Their personal things were rather adorable. Micharu had a tiny figurine of a seahorse sitting by a piece of coral, and Michiko had a tiny tea set in the shape and pattern of a cow. Each girl set their plushies on the shelves as well, along with the picture of their mother and father that they each carried in their purses. Michiko even handed her sister one of the pictures that she had taken of her and Hatori, which was squeed over and placed next to the plushie.

"So, what should do tonight? It's still early." Asked Micharu.

"I know, why don't we get Tohru to call Uo and Hana, we could all have a sleepover or something, and get to know each other."

"That sounds awesome, lets go ask her right now." Micharu said, as she dragged her sister by the wrist out of their room and into the house. They found Tohru in the laundry room. "Hey, Tohru, we were thinking that you could invite over Hana and Uo, we should all have a sleepover."

"Sure, that sounds like fun, I'll go ask Shigure." About an hour later, Hana and Uo arrived at the door, and Tohru introduced them to the new additions. "Hana, Uo, this is Michiko and Micharu, they're living here as well."

"Hey, what's up?"

"Pleasure to meet you."

Michiko leaned over and whispered to Micharu, "she is a bit creepy up close." Micharu nodded in agreement. "It's great to finally meet you,"

After introductions, they collected a variety of snacks from the kitchen, and made their way out to the girls new room. For about an hour they just sat around talking, before Micharu got an evil grin on her face. "How about a nice friendly game of truth or dare?"

Tohru looked slightly frightened, but Uo was up for it. Michiko clapped, "great, I love this game!"

"Alright, I'll go first, " stated Micharu, "Uo, truth or dare?"

"Dare"

Michiko grinned and whispered something to Micharu who also grinned. "Alright, Uo, I dare you to go into the house and confess you undying love to Kyo." Uo's eyes grew wide with shock.

"You gotta be kidding." Both girls shook their heads, and shooed her out. "Fine, fine, I'm going." Uo wandered around the house for a bit, oblivious to the congregation of girls following her. She found Kyo in the living room, along with Yuki and Hatsuharu. "Yo, orange top, I got something to tell you."

"What is it yankee?"

"The time has come for me to confess something to you, I've loved you for a long time, and I simply couldn't hold it in anymore. Every moment of my time, I yearn to be near you. I really don't hate your orange hair, I love it, I love you! " Uo turned red as she finished speaking, not nearly as red or shocked as Kyo was though. Both sort of snapped out of it, when they heard loud giggling from around the corner, as Michiko and Micharu spilled onto the floor laughing hysterically. Tohru and Hana were slightly more reserved, but still had smiles on their faces. Yuki and Haru just stared in shock at everything.

Micharu took a deep breath and stood up, placing a hand on Uo's shoulder, "nicely done, but now it's your turn to pick, so lets get back to the room."

A minute later they were back in the room, all sitting on the floor. "Alright" said Uo, "I pick Tohru, truth or dare?"

"Me? Oh um, truth."

"Ok, who do you like better, orange top or the prince?"

Tohru turned bright red at the question, "oh I don't know, I've never really thought about it before. Can I pass on this question?"

Michiko and Micharu whispered to each other, then nodded their heads, "Yes," stated Michiko, "but there will have to be a consequence. We've decided that instead of your truth, you will have to go into the house and give each of them a kiss, where ever you want."

Tohru blushed even harder, and shuffled out the room and into the house. She went into the living room and stood awkwardly in front of the boys, who all looked at her oddly. The other four girls were peeking around the corner to make sure she didn't chicken out. She walked up to Yuki, glancing behind her at the girls who had cut off her escape route. She leaned forward with almost lightning speed and planted a kiss on his cheek, before turning around and doing the same to Kyo, then running out of the room. More giggles were heard before they all went back into the room.

Yuki and Kyo sat there with huge blushes staining their features. Hatsuharu looked questioningly in the direction the girls had disappeared, "What do you think they're doing?"

"Probably some stupid girly game!" shouted Kyo.

"Why don't we go and see," suggested Yuki. The other boys agreed, and they walked out to the back yard. The peered in through the window, and watched.

"Tohru, it's your turn to pick someone."

"Ok, I pick Micharu."

"Dare."

Tohru couldn't think of much, so she turned to Michiko for help. They whispered for a moment before Tohru turned to look at Micharu. "Alright, she said that you have to walk into Shigure's room without your top."

Micharu blanched, "you evil!"

Michiko grinned, "sorry, but I know how evil you can be, so I'm just getting to you first."

Reluctantly, she pulled off her shirt, she was still wearing her bra, so it wasn't completely traumatic. Yuki and Kyo blushed and stopped looking through the window. Haru just sat on the ground by the wall. Micharu ran into the house and stopped at the entrance to Shigure's room. Taking a deep breath she slid open the door and took two steps inside. Shigure was sitting at his desk, and looked up, a shocked expression in his eyes. "Micharu, what brings you here?"

"Um, um… dare. Leaving now!" she turned around and scuttled down the hall and out of the house. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the three boys huddled by the window. She squealed and the girls all came running out. They too stopped and stared at the boys. "Hentai!"

After squealing and slapping, it was decided that the boys would have to join the game so that the girls could keep and eye on them.

Micharu sat down, with her shirt on now, "Michiko, I pick you, truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Dare it is then! I dare you to sing I am Cow! To Hatsuharu of course."

Michiko's eyes widened, "I hate you."

"Hating me doesn't affect your singing voice, now get to it!"

"Fine, fine, whatever." She looked at Haru, "Please don't hate me for this." She took a deep breath and began. "_I am cow, hear me moo, I weigh twice as much as you. And I look good on the barbeque. Yogurt, milk, cream, cheese and butter's made from a liquid from my udders, I am cow, I am cow hear me moo._" She stopped singing, and turned to her sister. "Do I have to sing the whole thing?"

"Yup!"

Michiko glared, but continued on. "_I am cow, eating grass, methane gas comes out my ass, and out my muzzle when I belch, oh the ozone layer is thinner, from the outcome of my dinner, I am cow, I am cow, I've got gas! I am cow, here I stand, far and wide across this land, and I am living everywhere. From BC to Newfoundland you can squeeze my tits by hand, I am cow, I am cow hear me moo!_"

Yuki looked totally shocked, but Kyo was laughing hysterically. "That was awesome, where did you come up with that?"

Micharu answered for her sister, who was currently blushing like crazy. "It's by a group called the Arrogant Worms, they're a Canadian folk singing group. They have tons of weird songs like that. Michiko dear, it's your turn to pick."

Michiko looked up, her blush slightly faded. "Kyo, I pick you, truth or dare?"

"Dare."

Michiko's blush was gone as she stood up and walked over to the shelves. She selected a tiny glittering tiara. She handed it to Kyo. "You have to wear this on your head for the rest of the game, and you can only answer when someone calls you Princess Kyo."

Kyo grumbled, but took the tiara and put it on his head. "Rat boy, truth or dare?"

"I'll pick truth."

"Sissy, fine then, if you had to choose one girl from that stupid fan club of yours, which one would it be?"

"Hmmm, I've never really thought about it before. I suppose Miss Ida wouldn't be that bad."

"Alright Yuki," said Michiko, "you get to pick someone now."

"Miss Hanajima, truth or dare?"

Hana's eyes flashed, "dare."

Yuki looked at the other girls for advice. Michiko stood up, walking to the closet and extracting a baby pink dress, and handed it to Yuki. "Alright then, I suppose I'll get you to wear this for the rest of the game." Hana nodded, collecting the dress and going into the house to change. She returned look uncharacteristically cheerful, bathed in a soft pink glow that seemed radiate off the fabric. She sat down again, and turned her attention to Hatsuharu.

"Hatsuharu, truth or dare?" her voice wasn't quite as monotone or creepy as usual.

"Dare."

"Very well, I dare you to…"

"Prove your natural hair color to Michiko!" blurted out Micharu.

Hana looked over at the sisters. "Yes, that will do nicely."

Michiko blushed horribly as Haru stood, grabbing her hand and walking her outside.

"Um, Haru, I'm not entirely comfortable with this." Haru let go of her hand and turned to her, pulling her into a kiss.

"I know, I wasn't planning on proving it to you that way…yet." Michiko blushed deeper. Instead of showing her "that" he simply showed her his underarm hair, which sure enough, was half white and half black.

They went back inside, Haru sitting down calmly, and Michiko sliding in next to her sister, with a blush on her cheeks.

Tohru let out a yawn. "It's getting late, why don't we stop playing now, we can all get together in the morning."

Everyone nodded in agreement. Kyo took off his tiara and Hana went and changed back into her normal clothes. The guys left to go inside, and the girls set up beds. It was really late, and they laid down to sleep, obscure thoughts of the game running through their heads.

Michiko got up one last time, to go to the bathroom, on her way back a hand wrapped around her wrist, and pulled her aside. "Promise me one thing," a voice whispered.

"What?"

"Never, ever sing that cow song again."

Michiko grinned, and turned to face Haru. "It's not like it was my choice, I was perfectly happy at having you be oblivious to the existence of that song."

"Yes, well, your sister is evil."

"I agree. But it's late, I should be going back to bed now."

"Alright," he said, before pulling her in for one last good night kiss.


	11. Hi Ho Hi Ho It's Off To Work We Go

Chapter 11: Hi Ho,Hi Ho, It's off to work we go!

The girls woke up early, a few days after the slumber party, to a fanatic Momiji hopping around their room. Michiko groaned and sat up, hair askew. "Yay! You're awake!" Momiji pounced on her. "Today you get to start working for Papa! Won't that be fun? I'll stop by after school to see you, but I just wanted to come see you before you left."

Micharu glanced back and forth from her sister to Momiji. "Oh, that's right, we do start work today, I'd almost forgotten." Micharu stood up, prying Momiji off her sister, before she picked out her clothes for the day. Michiko stood up as well, following her sisters actions. Momiji followed them both inside, and into the house, where they each disappeared into one of the bathrooms. They reentered the house wearing jeans and a t-shirt. They both walked to the kitchen followed by an overly ecstatic Momiji. "How much sugar have you had this morning?" asked Michiko.

"None at all,why?"

"No reason. Just wondering."

Everyone in the house sat at the table, eating the delicious meal that Tohru had prepared. Within an hour, everyone had left to go wherever they had to go, except Shigure, who of course, stayed home.

It was about a 20 minute walk for the girls to reach the building that they were working at. They signed in at the reception desk, and were accompanied by a couple of full time workers for a tour. Once they figure out where everything was, they were given their uniforms and sent to work. The girls found a washroom to change in.

"Well this sounds like a fun job, clean for hours, go home for lunch, come back, clean more, go over some filing, then go home. How long are we planning on working here?" Michiko asked her sister.

"At least until the spring, then probably just part time after we start school." Micharu answered.

Michiko sighed and finished pulling on the uniform over her clothes. She came into the main area, and pulled her hair into a ponytail. She groaned, tugging at the uniform, "I have to get up early to come to work, and I can't even look cute while I'm doing it."

Micharu just rolled her eyes as she braided her own hair. Then she grabbed Michiko's hand a pulled her out of the bathroom. "Come on we need to get to work, we don't get paid until we've worked two weeks. We need to start paying Shigure back for everything. We did promise him after all."

Michiko hung her head as she followed her sister, "I suppose so. Alright then, lets get to it."

The girls met up with the two ladies who worked with Tohru in the evenings. They chatted amicably while they swept and mopped the floors from foot prints that kept appearing on the floors. They scrubbed windows, and made sure that everything was well stocked all through the morning. That was all they had to do for the morning, at noon everyone was dismissed for the 2 hour lunch period.

The girls changed out of their uniforms, and began to walk home. 20 minutes later they arrived to a grinning Shigure. He looked oddly happy to see them, but then they heard his stomach growl, and they knew why. Michiko giggled at him, as she set her stuff inside the door.

Michiko went into the kitchen while Shigure interrogated Micharu about their first day of work. Michiko set up the rice cooker, and began to chop up a mixture of different vegetables for lunch.

"Actually it was pretty boring, we just clean in the morning, come here, then in the afternoon we clean some more and do some filing. That's about all we do." Said Micharu as she answered Shigure's questions.

"Well that's not much fun." Shigure pouted. "And here I was hoping you could inform me of some office intrigue, maybe the boss in a strange relationship with the mailroom attendant, or the lower workers plotting to overthrow the corporation."

"Naah, that's on the agenda for next week, sorry." Micharu said as she wandered away to help her sister with lunch. Shigure sighed and sat at the table to await his food.

Micharu sighed and rested her forehead on her sisters shoulder. "Shigure's weird."

Michiko giggled as she stirred the veggies in a wok. "You're just figuring that out."

"No, but I just remembered."

"Oh, I see, well, why don't you prepare the meat, I'm almost done with everything else." Michiko offered.

Micharu nodded, and began to dice up the meat that Michiko had set out on the counter, then tossed it into the wok once her sister had removed the veggies.

Minutes later they all sat together at the table, Shigure shoveled in the food, while the girls ate slowly, trying not to laugh at him, as he succeeded in sharing most of his rice with the table top as well as his mouth. Michiko stood up to take the dishes into the kitchen, when the doorbell rang. Since Michiko was in the kitchen, and Shigure was busy digesting, Micharu decided to answer the door.

She opened the inside door, and as she slid open the outside door she somehow managed to trip over a shoe that was in the entrance way, collapsing onto the person outside the door. She squealed an apology, then squealed even louder when she was engulfed into a cloud of smoke. 'Damn! There's only one person this happens around.'

The eyes that she had squeezed shut, were slowly opening to reveal the signature tiny sea horse that was Hatori. She hung her head, her hair creating a waterfall of copper around them. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to transform you. Again." With practiced movements she picked up the tiny seahorse, and the clothing around it, went into the house. "Shigure!" she whined, "I did it again!"

Shigure didn't answer, but came into the entranceway carrying a bucket of water, into which she dropped Hatori. Then she walked upstairs, and into the bathroom. She set the bucket down and filled the bathtub with cool water, dumped the contents of the bucket into it. Then she folded his clothing neatly and placed it on the ground beside the tub, before getting out a towel from the linen closet. Knowing that Hatori would be transforming in moments, she hurried out of the bathroom, making sure to tightly close the door behind her. Micharu didn't think that Hatori would appreciate her being there when he changed back into his ever so hot human sexy god like form. (AN: Michiko was just commenting on the fact that she thinks Haru would be much more talented in that department, so I had to hit her for thinking icky things. –Peace, Micharu) He didn't seem at all happy about it when she had fallen through the door before and he was only half-naked then. (AN: STOP SAYING THAT HARU IS PRETTY TALENTED!)(But I can't help it! He is! You stop ogling over Hatori then, and then I'll stop talking about Haru's fantastic ability to… never mind. You're not entitled to that information.) (Thank God!).

Looking at the clock, Micharu rushed downstairs and grabbed Michiko, yelling goodbye to Shigure and rushing out the door .If they didn't hurry the would be late for the second part of their day.

The rest of their week was quite similar to this day, with the exception of Micharu transforming Hatori. In fact, he didn't come by for a single visit for quite a while. Or at least it felt like that for Micharu.

AN: Yeah this is another short chapter cause to be honest, we really got bored writing it. So basically, nothing interesting is going to happen for this month, so we're skipping ahead to about late October. We figured it would be fine, since the other main people don't do anything really exciting in September.


	12. Trick or Treat Part 1

Chapter 12: Trick or Treat! Part 1

"Hey, Shigure?" asked Michiko as she swallowed a mouthful of soup, "I was wondering, have you ever heard of Halloween?"

Shigure placed the tip of his chopstick to his chin as he closed his eyes in thought. "Hmm, I think I've heard of it, but I don't really know what it is. Why do you ask?"

"Well, Halloween is only about 2 weeks away, I just noticed the date on the calendar, and I wondered if anyone here celebrated it. I know it's not a huge thing over here, but it's really fun, Micharu and I got to participate for the last 2 years."

Everyone was home, and sitting around the table chatting over dinner. None of them, other then the twins had heard about Halloween before. "Why don't we have a Halloween party, just so everyone gets an idea of the holiday?" asked Micharu. She turned to Shigure, "Do you think we could, on the 31st? It would be a costume party, with pumpkin carving, and bobbing for apples, and lots of candy for everyone."

"That sounds like fun, we can invite everyone over, and Aaya can make the costumes for everyone, I'm sure he'd enjoy that."

"That's a stupid idea, I'm not going anywhere near that freak, for ANY reason."

Micharu's eyes grew big and shimmery, as she scooted closer to Kyo, clasping her hands in a pleading expression. "Please Kyo, it's really a lot of fun, you won't even have to go see Ayame, Michiko and I can make your outfit. Please." Kyo blushed and fell backwards away from her.

He grumbled and his cat ears flattened to his head. "Fine, whatever." Kyo then turned away and began to sulk. It was actually rather cute.

"So then it is decided," Michiko said. "We'll have the party on the 31st, and it's a Friday night, so everyone can stay late." Then she gasped, and her eyes got big and shiny. "We should have a huge sleepover!" Both sisters began to giggle maniacally. Kyo turned toward them looking slightly frightened.

"Kagura won't be coming will she?"

"Of course she will," squealed Micharu, "Everyone will be, except for Akito, but that's for obvious reasons."

"Well," said Shigure, "Now that that's settled, why don't you two start the planning of it."

The twins nodded in agreement, and began tossing ideas between the two of them. Since they were the only ones who had experienced Halloween before, it made sense that they were the only ones to plan it. When they were done they'd just have to explain everything to Shigure, and the menu plans would be given to Tohru.

"So, pumpkin carving, apple bobbing, candy, what else?" asked Michiko.

"How about a ghost story contest, and a costume contest." Offered Micharu.

"That's great, what should we dress up as? Oh! We'll have to come up with costumes for everyone. Eeeeeeeee! This is gonna be so much fun!"

When they finished dinner, Shigure went to go phone Ayame, figuring that he would need the remaining time to finish costumes for everyone.

"Aaya, yes it's me, our house guests would like to commission you to make some outfits. Alright, I'll bring them down tomorrow and you can work things out. Hmmm? Sure I'll see if I can get him to come along as well. Alright, good bye." Shigure hung up the phone and went to talk to the girls. "Aaya said he'd be happy to make you some outfits, so I'll call Haa-san to drive you tomorrow, and you can discuss everything with Aaya."

"Yay! That's great Shigure, thanks so much." Michiko squealed happily.

Everyone had left the dining area, and gone about their business for the evening. Michiko and Micharu sat at the table, with a piece of paper, ready to pick out everyone's costumes. Since they had to take the plans to Ayame tomorrow, they wanted to be well planned.

"Hmmm," wondered Michiko, "I guess we should plan ourselves first, since that seems easiest."

"I guess so, what should we dress up as?" asked Micharu.

Michiko contemplated for a moment before a strangely evil grin spread over her face. "I've got the perfect costume for you."

Micharu paled a bit, "why does that look scare me beyond all reason?"

"Because it should. Anyway, you should dress up as a nurse, you'd go perfectly with Hatori. Not your normal nurse of course, I'll have to get Ayame to "spice" up your costume a bit, just to make things interesting."

Micharu stared blankly at her sister, "Eep! I don't think that's a good idea, what's wrong with a nice safe gypsy costume, ya know, like the one I wore last year."

"You mean the one that went past your knees and up to your chin? I don't think so, we're showing you off, how do you expect Hatori to fall for you if you hide behind walls of fabric?"

Micharu hung her head slightly, "Fine, but nothing playboyish, sheer or leather."

"Drat. That ruins my whole outfit scheme." Michiko giggled. "I was thinking of dressing up as a cowgirl, ya know to compliment with Haru. I'll need to practice with the lasso. Don't look at me like that! I know what you're thinking."

"You'd better stay in plain sight of me the whole time. I won't let you tie up Haru, nothing inappropriate is happening at this party while I'm on duty, especially not if there are kids there."

Michiko sniffled, "aww, you ruin all my fun." Then she giggled. "Actually I just want to learn the lasso cuz it looks really cool, I wasn't planning on using it for anything like that. Now back to costume selecting, what should we dress Haru up as?"

"Hmmm, I think he'd make an awesome Dracula, plus we already know he's good at biting necks."

Michiko blushed horribly, "you're so evil!"

"Hey, I never asked about it, you told me freely."

"That's not the point, you weren't ever supposed to bring it up again." Michiko whined.

"I know, I just like bugging you about it. So who else are we dressing up?" asked Micharu.

"Hmm, there a few pretty simply costumes that we could do, I think that we should keep Kyo as the cat, just because it really suits him, the same with Kisa as a tiger." All of a sudden she gasped. "I have the best idea for Tohru!"

"What?" Micharu asked, intrigued by her sisters outburst.

"Little Bo Peep! And Hiro could be her sheep!" Squealed Michiko.

"Awwww, that would be so adorable." Micharu thought for a moment, "I think that we should make a doubles costume for Shigure and Ayame. Hmmm, maybe we could do a fairy tale thing or something. How about the Snow King and Queen, it certainly seems to suit them."

"That would be awesome. Who else do we have to dress up?" asked Michiko?

"Um, Momiji, Yuki, and Kagura." Answered Micharu.

"Ok, how about we just keep Momiji as a bunny?" asked Michiko?

"Alright, Kagura strikes me as the type to enjoy a poofy dress, how about we get her a princess costume."

"Ok, what should we dress Yuki up as?"

"Oh, oh, oh I know!", Micharu grinned, "how about Pikachu!"

Michiko gave her an odd look. "You've got to be kidding."

" I think it would be cute"

"No."

"Please?"

"I don't think so."

"Come on." Micharu looked at her sister with sparkling puppy dog eyes.

"Okay, okay. Stupid cuteness." She sighed. "So go call Hatori and see if he can drive us to Aaya's shop."

"What? You want me to call?"

"Yeah. Come on, it's not like you can trip onto him over the phone line. And now you have to start a conversation with him."

"Oh man, what am I going to say?" She mumbled as she headed towards the phone. She dialed the number that she had made sure to memorize first thing. It was ringing for the third time when Hatori answered.

"Hello"

"H…H….Hi Hatori. It's Micharu. I was won…I mean we were…that is Michiko and me were wondering if you could drive us to Ayame's shop."

"Well I will be able to in about an hour. May I ask why you want to go?"

"Yes, of course, why not, why wouldn't you not be able to? I mean we thought that we would have a Halloween party for everyone and, and we wanted to see if Ayame would like to make the costumes for everyone. That is we picked costumes for everyone." Micharu ginned. She was actually having a conversation with him that involved more than a few words, and she wasn't ever feverish. Or at least she didn't think she was. She lifted her hand to her forehead. Nope, not hot.

Hatori grinned on the other side of the phone. "Ah, a Halloween party. And what did you two pick for my outfit?"

"Um, well we weren't sure if you really wanted to dress up so we thought that you could come up with something yourself if you wanted to dress up. I'm sorry we didn't come up with anything, I just didn't want to offend you or anything by picking something you didn't like."

"I see, well that's alright then, I'll come by as soon as I finish up here. I'll see you soon. Goodbye Micharu."

"Bye Hatori." Micharu hung up the phone and slid down against the wall, letting out a deep breath. "I actually talked to him, I didn't pass out or anything." Using the wall as a support she hefted herself up and returned to the room where her sister was anxiously awaiting her.

"So, how'd it go?"

"Good, he's coming by to pick us up in about an hour." Micharu answered her sister.

Michiko pounced on her sister enveloping her in a hug. "I'm so proud of you, you talked to Hatori without being sick!"

Micharu blushed and squirmed out of Michiko's grasp. "Be proud of me later if I actually make it through the car ride without embarrassing myself."

Michiko giggled. "I'm sure you'll be fine."

About an hour later the door bell rang, which Shigure answered, and Hatori entered the house. Michiko wandered to the entrance way and greeted Hatori, pulling Micharu behind her, who was carrying their list of costumes.

"Thank you so much Hatori." Michiko commented.

Shigure grinned. "So Ha'ri, you actually get to pick your own costume. Whatcha going to be. These guys won't even tell us."

"I was thinking I would save Ayame some work and just go as a doctor"

"Well that's kinda borin…" But he was interrupted by Michiko.

"Yes! I was hoping you would say that!" This caused everyone, especially Micharu to glance over at her. She had a very strange and kinda demonic look in her eyes.

Micharu backed away. "I don't even want to know."

Hatori broke the silence. "Well girls, do you have everything you need?"

"I think so." Micharu looked at he sister to make sure.

"Yes we do…wait! No we don't. We need peoples measurements." Michiko whipped out a measuring strip, and tossed Micharu a paper and pen. She began to zip around the room, wrapping the strip around people in several places, yelling out numbers and names to her sister. She was done in a matter of moments, and pranced breathlessly back to the door. "Alright, now we're ready." She grinned as Micharu came up behind her looking frazzled.

"How'd you do that so fast?"

"It's a strange talent I've developed since coming here. Anyway, let's get going, I can't wait! This is the first time we're meeting Ayame."

"Hey, that's right, it is. I can't wait! I wonder if we'll get to see him in one of his special outfits today. "

" I hope so." Michiko giggled, imaging him in the wedding dress that he wore.

"Well girls," Hatori gestured to the door, "shall we go?"

With their collected knowledge of everyone's measurements, the girls shuffled out of the house dragging Hatori with them. They drove in relative silence, the girls practically bursting at the seams with giddiness, but not wanting to annoy Hatori. When they got closer to Ayame's shop they began to get a little apphrensive, they were excited to meet Ayame, but at the same time they were a little nervous. They let Hatori enter the shop first, and they followed closely behind. They were greeted Mine who bounded up to them smiling brightly.

"Hello, welcome to the shop, what can I help you with today?"

"Good afternoon Mine, these girls," Hatori motioned to the twins standing behind him, "need to speak with Ayame about some outfits."

Mine glanced at the two of them, a grin spreading over her features "Of course, come with me," she said, grabbing a hand of each girl and making her way to the back of the shop.

"I'll be back in about an hour to pick you up," called Hatori as the girls were dragged out of sight. In the back of the store they came upon Ayame pinning the hem of a red lace gown.

He smiled brightly when he noticed them. "Ah, you must be the ones staying with Gure-san."

Michiko nodded and stepped forward, shaking his hand. "Yup, he called earlier. We were wondering if you could help us with some costumes?"

"Of course, it's what I do. Do you mind me asking what they're for?"

"Halloween." Ayame tilted his head to the side giving her a questioning look. "It's a holiday from where we used to live. People dress up in different outfits, and there's a bunch of activities and stuff involving candy."

"Hmmm, sounds interesting, what costumes did you have in mind?"

"Well, we have me as a cowgirl, Micharu as a nurse, Yuki as pikachu, Tohru as Little Bo Peep with Hiro as her sheep, Kyo as a kitty, Kagura as a princess, Hatsuharu as Dracula and Kisa as a Tiger. "

"Well, that's quite a list you have there, I'll have to get everyone's measurements before I can start, but it sounds like fun."

Michiko dug in her pocket and pulled out the list of measurements. "Here," she said, handing the list to Ayame, "we took them just before we left."

"Thank you, I'll get started right away." Ayame left and began to search through the stock for suitable fabric.

"Well, now that that's over, lets get you two into some cute outfits." Mine hustled them each into a change room and tossed some clothes over the door for them.

After several minutes of struggling with zippers and buttons, both girls emerged. Michiko was wearing a bright teal, empire cut dress with matching choker and black pumps, and Micharu was dressed in a pink and white lace tanktop with a black skirt and pink strappy sandals.

Mine clasped her hands, "you two look amazing, I love dressing people up."

Michiko smiled, running her hands over the fabric, it was smooth and silky beneath her fingers. "Mine, these outfits are gorgeous, do you think I could buy the dress?"

"Of course, Ayame will be so happy you like his work. Hold on I'll go get him so he can see you dressed up."

Ayame oohed and aahed over the outfits, and insisted that they take them as a gift, provided that they wear them to the next special occasion.

"Sooo….," Mine looked over at the girls with a grin, "Any special someone you guys want to impress with these outfits?"

"Well I would like to get a second glance out of Haru." Michiko grinned like crazy.

"You two would make a cute couple."

Ayame turned towards Micharu "And what about you? Who has penetrated your sweet little heart?"

Micharu blushed ferociously. " Well you see…ummm….there is ….umm…well I like…Hatori!

"Ah so it is Hatori. Good to see you again." Hatori has picked that exact moment to step through the door into the shop. " Are you taking these beauties away from us already. And we were right in the middle of a very serious conversation. Micharu here was about to tell us who she is infatuated by." He looked back at her. "So who is the lucky guy?"

"Umm No one. No one at all. Nope, not a single person. Nope nope nope."

Leaving her sister to Ayame's questioning torment, Michiko pulled Mine aside. "Hey Mine, you like Ayame don't you?"

Mine flushed bright red, "What? That's not right Ayame is my co-worker, I couldn't!"

"But you do." Michiko remained adamant in her observations and accusations.

Mine sighed and hung her head in defeat. "I do, but you can't tell him!" She grasped Michiko's hands in a pleading expression.

"Of course, I wouldn't dream of giving away your secret, I was actually hoping that you could help me with something, I could help you with Ayame in exchange if you like." Mine nodded, showing that she would listen to Michiko's idea. "I need to get some information about Hatori for my sister, I'd like to set them up. I could find out some things about Ayame and get you two into some romantic situations too."

Mine blushed, "I'd be willing to help you with your sister, but I'm not sure about starting a relationship with Ayame. Things could be so awkward."

"But they could be so wonderful as well. You should at least try, it's clear that you and Ayame have a great relationship already, why not insert a little intimacy into it."

Mine blushed harder. "Alright, I'll help you if you help me."

"It's a deal!" she exclaimed, extending her hand to Mine for a handshake. Returning to her sisters side, she excused them both from Ayame's company, and promised they'd be back before Halloween to pick up the outfits. Shuffling both her sister and Hatori out the door, Michiko waved goodbye to Ayame and Mine. Outside, Hatori started the car and drove the girls home. The car ride was relatively calm, Hatori drove in silence, Micharu was still blushing intensely and Michiko was plotting on how to get the car occupants together.


	13. Trick or Treat Part 2

Chapter 13: Trick or Treat! Part 2

Ayame had called the day before Halloween to let the twins know that the costumes were complete and ready for wearing. It was already the 31st of October, everyone had been shuffled out of the house, and instructed to pick up their costumes from Ayame's before coming over to Shigure's.

Michiko and Micharu had been rushing around the house preparing the decorations, activities and food. It was only early morning, but everything was already taking on an eerie appearance. Everything was coated in cobwebs and black and orange streamers. Toy bats were hung from the ceiling in between streamers, and black and orange balloons were covering the entrances. A skeleton was hung on each closet door, and fake gravestones were set up randomly on the floor that had previously been covered with faux grass to add outside authenticity. Unlit Jack-o-lanterns lined the drive way to the house, the girls had been working on them all week being disturbed often by questions as to what they were.

In the kitchen they had set up a basin for bobbing for apples, and dishes of carmels and other candies were set out. There was also a goody bag for everyone that contained chocolate bars, tiny chocolate pumpkins, lollipops, candy necklaces, pop, gumballs, skeleton/spider/pumpkin rings and a hat that read 'My First Halloween'.

They were quite proud of what they had accomplished, and were now in the process of making tiny white ghosts out of paper towels. Michiko folded them while Micharu tied them and colored on the eyes.

Around lunch time they'd make witches fingers, which were cookies with slices of almond on the end for a nail. There would also be a big bowl of punch with an ice hand floating in it.

"This is going to be so amazing!" Micharu squealed tossing a tiny towel ghost into the air.

Michiko nodded in agreement. Everyone was expected to arrive around six o'clock when the sun would be beginning to set. Finally at five thirty the cookies where out of the oven and cooling on the counter. Their wonderful smell wafted throughout the house and the girls decided that it was about time that they changed into their costumes, which Ayame had conveniently delivered the night before. They headed to their room and dug out the outfits from within the closet.

After a brief minute of changing, Micharu spoke out to her sister. "Umm…I think there might have been a mistake made with my costume."

"What do you mean?"

"Well there doesn't really seem to be much fabric here."

"Well let's see it then." Michiko grinned under her large cowboy hat. She figured that the costume would be spectacular. Anything made by Ayame would be a real jaw-dropper.

Micharu stepped out and showed off her outfit. She has on a little white dress that went only a few inches below her behind. There was a pink stripe across the bottom. The top of the dress was very low cut and was fitted just so, so it ended up pushing up her chest and showing a fair bit of cleavage. Situated on the top of her head was a small white nurses hat with a pink cross. The outfit was finally accented with white pumps.

"Hey sis, you look sexy!"

Micharu blushed horribly. "I can't wear this, there's nothing to this outfit!"

Michiko just smiled. "You look amazing, it's about time you started showing yourself off."

"But I feel like a playboy bunny, why not just replace the hat with some ears."

Michiko giggled at her sisters response. "Oh, hush. Quit whining and let me finish getting dressed." Michiko left and returned to the room she was using to change. Coming out several minutes later she twirled for her sister who regarded the outfit with almost the same distaste she had for her own.

Michiko was wearing a pleated denim skirt hung off her hips. Her top was a gorgeous green plaid that buttoned up halfway and tied at the bottom, the top was finished off with a soft leather vest. She had braided her hair into pigtails and arranged her cowboy hat carefully on her head. The hat was made from a smooth tan colored fabric with a green ribbon around the top. For the bottom she wore tight fitting cowboy boots, which were different from normal cowboy boots, but more attractive and less prone to causing blisters. The final touch to the outfit was a length of rope, the lasso, that hung off her left hip.

They had just finished the arrangement of the food when the first person arrived. It was Kagura, dressed in a shimmering, poofy pink princess dress, complimented by a silver tiara with pink roses. "Wow Kagura, you look amazing." Greeted Michiko.

"Thank you, you guys look great too." She smiled brightly as the girls directed her into the living room. "This place looks incredible, you've gone all out with the decorations, I especially like the pumpkins in the drive way, they look so neat in the dark."

They all sat together chatting waiting for everyone else to arrive. Next to arrive was Momiji, Kisa and Hiro. Momiji was dressed head to toe in fuzzy yellow fabric with bunny ears on top and a fluffy white tail on the back. Kisa was donning a tiger striped dress with tiger ears and tiger toe slippers. Hiro was looking slightly less amused about his costume then the other two were. He was dressed in a wooly head to toe outfit, with a tiny sheep tail and curled horns on his head.

The girls giggled and squealed over the adorableness that the three of them embodied. No sooner had they left the entrance way had more people arrived. Micharu escorted the kids into the room with Kagura while Michiko answered the door. Tohru was at the door, wearing an outfit very much like the one Ayame had dressed her up in before, except she had a bonnet and a walking staff. The only other new addition was that her hair was bundled into a mass of curls that bounced around her face. "Tohru, you look so cute, your sheep is just in the other room, Momiji, Kisa and Kagura are here already too, you can go join them if you want." Tohru nodded and went to go see everyone else.

Next to show up was Shigure and Ayame, followed by Hatori, then Kyo. Shigure was wearing an elaborate royal outfit of a rich dark blue fabric, complete with sword and crown. Ayame wore a similar outfit, but much more feminine with a sleeker crown and no sword. Hatori was wearing his standard doctors robe, looking exactly like he did every other day. Kyo was wearing a pant and shirt set that matched his hair perfectly with kitty ears in his head and a long swinging tail to the back of him.

The last ones to arrive were Yuki and Hatsuharu. Yuki was being forcibly dragged, not agreeing with the outfit he was being forced to wear. Hatsuharu swept through the door, wearing an long black cloak and almost a tuxedo like suit underneath it. Yuki was wearing a bright yellow outfit with a lightning shaped tail, and pointed yellow, brown tipped ears with bright red circles painted on his cheeks.

Micharu gasped as she joined her sister at the door. "Yuki, you make an adorable Pikachu! That's so awesome!" she grinned, laughing at his disgruntled expression. "oh lighten up, you look great and everyone will love your costume."

Tohru bounced forward grinning as she took in Yuki's appearance. "Pikachu, I choose you!" Yuki blushed horribly, his cheeks matching the red paint.

Michiko laughed, "We didn't even need to get you face paint."

Michiko shut the door behind them, and followed them all into the room that everyone had gathered. She was greeted by a roar of laughter erupting from Shigure once he saw Yuki's costume.

Ayame flounced over to his brother, putting his arm around his shoulder. "Ah, little brother, you look just as amazing as I knew you would. How about a nice big thank you for your older brother."

Yuki removed Ayame's hand from his person. "How about not."

Once everyone had hung out for a little while they handed out some of the cookies and poured everyone some punch. "Traditionally you go from house to house asking for candy, but since most of Japan doesn't celebrate Halloween, we just prepared each of you some goody bags filled with holiday treats." Micharu said as she handed everyone a bag of candies.

Kisa and Momiji were particularly amused by the amounts of candy they were allowed to consume. The girls decided to start off the night with the patented doughnut-eating contest. You tie a doughnut to a string, have people lay down beneath them and see who can eat them the fastest, but they aren't allowed to touch them with anything but their mouths. The first team to try this out would be Kyo, Shigure and Micharu. The second team would consist of Kagura, Yuki, and Momiji. The third would be made up of Haru, Ayame and Michiko. The others each grabbed one of the already prepared strings and held them up while the first team lied down.

"On your mark, get set….GO!" Momiji cheered from the sidelines.

Quickly the three contestants attempted to hoover down the sugary treats. It was a close contest. Not only was Micharu a champion at fast food consumption, but she was also experienced in the game. Shigure was not going to give up easily either. But he did not worry Micharu. Her real competition seemed to be Kyo. Any contest put him in one of his super competitive moods. Especially since Yuki was in the next heat. In the end, he beat her by a few short seconds.

Yuki won the second heat hands down. Kagura was afraid to win cause then she would have to compete against Kyo, and Momiji couldn't stop laughing once he got sugar up his nose, though did put up a good fight until then. This win made Kyo quite happy.

The third heat was amazing. Everyone was surprised that Michiko even entered the contest. While she was somewhat outgoing, food did not seem like her forte. Boy were they wrong. Not only did she beat the others in a flash, she leaned over and finished Haru's donut as well.

The finalists lied down and were faced with a new challenge. Powdered sugar. Not only did they have to eat fast, they also had to avoid inhaling it. Kyo spent the first five minutes challenging Yuki. After that was finally finished, the contest began. But alas, Kyo's challenge was useless, for who in the end pulled a victory? That's right, Michiko. This made Kyo cranky for the rest of the night.

Momiji won at bobbing for apples. Everyone had fun with the pumpkin carving. Kagura made hers into a cat. They then put them outside to greet any visitors that may happen to come by. It would be a strange sight for them to see, but by that moment everyone was having too much fun to care.

The final activity for the night was telling ghost stories. This was not one of the girl's ideas but instead was something Shigure had come up. He had spent some time avoiding his manuscript and decided to look up the holiday that he was semi-willingly being forced into.

Not only did this not go well for the young ones (well Kisa and Kagura), but it also freaked out the sisters. Michiko jumped into Haru's lap while Micharu hid her face in Hatori's shoulder.

"Boy are guys scardy cats!" Haru laughed while simultaneously getting a glare from Kyo by this phrase.

This made Micharu laugh. "Well you should have seen us when we were younger. We kept hearing these sounds in the attic and ended up getting so freaked that it was a ghost. It scared us , she looked at the younger ones, poopless."

"So what ended up happening?" Shigure asked

"Well finally we got the courage to go up and look. After being so worked up, everything we saw made us scream. Eventually we came across a family of squirrels. That was what we had been hearing the whole time."

This made Haru laugh even harder than before. "Squirrels? That's all it was? Man that would have been hilarious!"

"Hey!" Michiko glared up at him. "Squirrels can to be scary. They have those beady eyes and that bushy tail! I swear it's not natural!" She shuddered.

"Yeah, this one time one started chasing her at the park. Man she screamed so hard and started running around screaming 'Help me, help me! They're going to eat me!'. Then she hid in the tube slide crying until it was time to go home." Micharu just ignored the look her sister gave her. "Pretty grown up for a twelve year old eh?"

Everyone then just sat and talked for about an hour. Then they saw that Kisa and Hiro were starting to yawn, so they said their goodnights and headed to their sleeping quarters. The girls would sleep in the sisters' house while the boys would sleep in the living room.

Michiko and Haru were the last ones to leave. "Night Haru."

Haru gently pressed his lips to hers in a long farewell "Night Michiko".


	14. Plushies Galore and Kyo's Hidden Talent

Chapter 14: Plushies galore and Kyo's "Hidden" Talent 

Halloween had gone off with a bang, and though the next holiday was still over a month away the girls were already thinking of ideas. For Christmas they wanted to give everyone plushies of their second forms, but that could be problematic seeing as there were no Fruits Basket plushies in this world. They figured that they could try and make them, but neither of the girls had any sewing skills whatsoever, so they decided to petition Ayame and Mine for lessons.

They called up Hatori to drive them to Ayame's shop, refusing to tell him the exact reason, but insisting that he would find out soon enough. Once they were halfway there Michiko decided that she would start to work on her plan for her deal with Mine.

"Hey Hatori?"

"Hmmm?"

"I was wondering if you could tell me what sort of girl Ayame likes?"

"I'm not really sure, I can't remember Ayame ever having a long term relationship, its always difficult with the curse, so I haven't seen him try too often. Plus we went to an all boys school, so there wasn't much opportunity for female relations."

Micharu gave her sister a questioning look. "Why would you ask something like that? Did you give up on Hatsuharu and decide to go for Ayame instead?" The words were out of her mouth before she really had time to think.

"Excuse me?" Hatori glanced back at the girls in surprise.

Michiko paled slightly, whacking her sister upside the head. "Micharu I can't believe you!"

"It was just a question, why else would you ask about Aaya's taste in girls?"

"Because I made a deal with Mine, and FYI, I was doing it for you!" Michiko huffed, hitting her sister again, who retaliated and created a slapping fight.

Hatori pulled over, turning around in his seat to try and separate them. Unfortunately, Micharu fell backwards into him causing a tiny seahorse to appear and fall between the girls on the seat. Michiko squealed trying not to crush him as she fell over her sisters legs.

"Oh crap!" Michiko exclaimed, seahorses and air do not mix. "Micharu grab a container!"

In her haste, Micharu grabbed Hatori's coffee cup, wincing as the liquid spilled over her. She dropped the container, almost hitting Hatori had Michiko not snatched it out of the air, successfully spilling the remainder on her jeans. Giving the cup a quick rinse with a water bottle she found on the floor, she filled it up again and dropped Hatori in. Sighing in relief the girls flopped back against the seat.

Micharu glanced out the back window hearing a car pull up behind them. A police car. Micharu grabbed Hatori's coat and dragged it over the top of the coffee cup, knocking it over. Seconds before the cop approached the car, Hatori changed back, soaking wet and covered only by his jacket.

The cop knocked on the window, unsure of what to make of a nearly naked man in the backseat with two coffee soaked teenage girls. "Is there a problem here?"

Michiko answered, since Micharu seemed completely speechless. "No sir, we just had a bit of a problem with a coffee cup." She smiled brightly despite her nervousness at trying to explain the situation. The cop gave them a strange look, but decided that they weren't in danger, so he nodded and returned to his car before driving away.

Hatori released an audible sigh and Micharu looked close to tears. "Hatori, I'm sorry, I didn't mean too, please don't be mad, we'll never fight again, I'll even clean your car for you, and I'll walk next time no matter how far away I need to go."

"No, it's fine, I'll take it to the cleaners later." He sighed again. "Please turn around so I can get back into my seat." Both girls complied as Hatori held the jacket firmly around his waist and crawled into the front seat.

It was another couple of minutes to Ayame's and the ride passed in uncomfortable silence. Arriving, the girls thanked Hatori for the ride, gave him some money for the cleaners and entered the shop quickly without looking back.

Mine greeted them. "hey girls, how's it going?"

"Could be better," answered Micharu. "we just made a mess of Hatori's car when we spilled his coffee."

Mine frowned slightly. "Don't worry, Hatori is pretty sensible, I'm sure he won't be angry long." Her smile returned. "So what can I help you with today, more outfits?"

"Umm," said Michiko, "we were actually hoping that you and Ayame could give us sewing lessons."

Mine tilted her head slightly in a questioning glance. "I can, but you'll have to ask Ayame. Why the sudden interest?"

Micharu fielded this question. "We want to make plushies for the Sohma's as Christmas presents."

"Ah, Gure-san's little friends!" Ayame flounced out from the back room. "What brings you here?"

Mine answered for them. "They'd like sewing lessons."

"Really? That's wonderful, I'm always happy to teach my art."

The girls grinned. "You could help us make Yuki's present first so that we get the hang of it, then we should be fine to make the rest."

"What are you going to make him?"

"A tiny stuffed rat." Answered Michiko.

Ayame smiled brightly. "That's so perfect!"

"I could always give him mine, but I'd like to make him one instead."

"Of course, and you're planning on making these things for everyone?"

Micharu nodded. "We're making you one as well, but it won't be a surprise since you'll be teaching us."

"That's alright, I don't really mind."

They spent the next few weeks in the company of Ayame and Mine learning to sew under careful supervision. There were several injuries with the sewing needle, but nothing serious, by the end of November they had finished eight of the eleven plushies they were going to make. Having devoted most of their spare time to finishing them, they hadn't gotten much else done.

Michiko was currently working on the Momiji bunny plushie and Micharu was working on the Shigure puppy. Setting her work aside Michiko sighed. "I'm tired of sewing, let's do something else. Don't we have anything entertaining to do?"

Micharu thought for a moment. "We could play a game, I saw Disney Scene It somewhere in the house a while ago."

"Are you serious?" Michiko sat up quickly, "We have to play that!" Pushing her sister off the couch into a standing position she squealed, "Find it, find it!"

"Ok, ok, I'm going." Micharu bent down and shuffled through the stacks of movies and other things under the TV in the cabinet. "Found it!" she announced triumphantly holding up the multicolored box.

"Awesome possum! I'll go get everyone to play with us." While Micharu set up the game and board, Michiko rounded up Shigure, Yuki, Kyo and Tohru. It was mid afternoon so they had a while to play before dinner.

"What are we doing?" asked Tohru.

"We're going to play a game, now we're going to be divided into teams, I'm thinking guys against girls."

There wasn't too much argument so they sat on their respective sides of the gameboard and rolled the dice.

(AN: This chapter could be very long, but we're getting bored with lots of detail, so we'll be wrapping this up semi-quickly.)

"Choose a card."

"Solve the puzzle."

"Lady and the Tramp!"

"Cinderella!"

"Lilo and Stitch!"

By the time the game was half finished the girls were staring at Kyo with a look of astonishment, he had answered nearly every single one of the questions directed at his team, they were actually ahead of the girls at the moment.

Michiko picked up a card to ask the question to the guys. "What is the name of the dragon from Mulan?"

"Mushu." Kyo answered. "When are you going to get to the hard questions?"

"We thought this game would be challenging for you, we never knew you watched Disney so much."

"What do you think I did before bed every night during that four month training session?" They all looked at him oddly. "Oh, nevermind, just roll the dice."

Tohru rolled for the girls, coming up with a three and a mousellaneous. Yuki asked the question for them. "What Disney movie is based on the legend of an ancient civilization?"

Micharu answered for her group. "Atlantis."

This continued for a while until they were at the All Play to Win, the girls were only one roll behind the guys, if the boys answered this question right, or rather if Kyo answered it right, then they would win. It was a 'spot the difference' clip, where two nearly identical pictures were shown and you had to find out what was different. It was a picture of Belle and the Beast sitting a large chair in front of the fire, reading a book. They all stared intently for a moment before Kyo shouted out, "The bow! Her hair bow is dark green in one and pale green in the other!"

The boys had won the game, much to the surprise of the girls, it turns out that Kyo was even more fanatical about Disney then they were, not something you'd expect from the cat. The girls pouted as they returned to their sewing and Kyo glowed with pride over his win, completely ignoring how much Shigure was bugging him for watching Disney.


End file.
